Babylon
by Lionella
Summary: Prince James has found his princess, but their happily ever after ending isn't so easily achieved. AU
1. Chapter 1

**This is an idea that has been bugging me for the last few weeks, so I figured I may as well just write it down. AU, but will hopefully contain some elements of the books. I'm not sure how often I will update, it will probably depend on how much I procrastinate. **

…

The black haired man dropped to one knee in front of the red haired woman.

"Lily Evans, would you do me the honour of wedding me?"

He held his breath as he waited for her answer. To him, it seemed as if an age had passed before she

replied.

"Yes," she said breathlessly.

He leapt to his feet and smothered her in a hug.

…

The scene faded and the grim man watching smiled unpleasantly.


	2. Chapter 2

**So, I updated! I appreciate any constructive criticism, I usually read more than I write so I'm pretty sure I'll have some mistakes somewhere that I've missed. It's only a small chapter, I'm having a little trouble working up to the original story idea, so I'm just going to write it in bits and pieces until it comes together. Hope you enjoy!**

…**...**

Prince James and his mother, Queen Helen, surveyed the ballroom. It was stunning, red and gold banners flowed down the walls and roses were in sparkling vases on the tables. The room teemed with servants as they arranged it all too perfection. Helen quietly watched as James moved among them. He looked so happy, now that he had finally won over the woman of his dreams

_As they rode through one of the local villages, James suddenly leaped off his horse and with a series of leaps, rolls and jumps, he landed on his knees in front of a young woman with red hair. He held a lily out to her._

"_A lily for a Lily," he said as he looked hopefully up at the girl._

Queen Helen almost laughed as she remembered how the girl had scowled at James while telling him that his stunts were unimpressive, reckless, downright idiotic and could he really not think off anything more original than a lily?

"What is so entertaining?" James asked as he came to stand beside his mother.

"Nothing at all that concerns you my dear," Helen replied.

James glanced at his mother and then shrugged. "Well I think this place looks almost perfect," he said.

"And what do you mean by almost perfect?" was the frosty answer.

"Nothing at all that concerns you Mother," James said with his trademark cheeky grin.

Helen looked at him suspiciously. James and his friends were well known for their outrageous ideas. "I hope that your plans are not too destructive. I do not think that your Engagement Ball needs to be ruined by any overzealous attempts at 'entertainment'."

"Relax Mother, I promise that the Ball will be perfect."

Helen watched as her boy almost ran out of the room to go and find his partners in mischief. "I sure hope Lily will be able to knock some sense into that boy,"she thought as she turned to supervise the decorations.


	3. Chapter 3

**Another update! Still working up to the main plot, bear with me awhile. Enjoy!**

...

Lily gazed out of her window as one of the maids dressed her hair. She could not believe that she was at this moment getting ready for a ball. Her engagement ball. "How did he convince me to do this?" Lily thought to herself. James had been so conceited when they had first met, a true prince. Once he had gotten it through his thick skull that she was not just going to drop at his feet and worship him, he was actually quite pleasant to be around. It had taken a year, but Lily was sure that in the end he had just worn her down with his persistence. "From a barmaid to this," she thought.

As she was thinking, the maid finished her work. Lily thanked her as she left the room and returned to her view of the palace gardens. A flash of black caught her eye. There was a dark haired man walking through the gardens. "What is he doing there?" she thought.

…

James walked into the meeting room. It had once been their schoolroom, but since then it had been converted into a comfortable sitting room which he and his friends used to work on their ideas. Sirius, Remus and Peter had been his friends for as long as any of them could remember. Together, they had caused much mayhem throughout the castle and the surrounding lands. While mostly harmless, the boys idea of entertainment could differ markedly from those of everyone else.

"Finally!" Sirius exclaimed as James entered. "I thought you had drowned in all the flowers and things they have up in the ballroom!"

"Really Sirius, I do not think that anyone could drown in flowers," Remus sighed.

"James might have been the first," Peter piped up.

"Thank you Peter, at least someone agrees with me."

"Peter always agrees with you Sirius," said James.

"No he does not, he agrees with you more than with me!" Sirius exclaimed.

"That is true, I agree with James far more than you Sirius," Peter said.

"But you just agreed with him again! You never agree with me Peter!"

Sirius buffed his nails on his shirt. "He must like me more than you, I knew that I was the most desirable of all of us."

As James opened his mouth to reply angrily, Remus stepped in. "I thought we were here to plan, not debate who is the most desirable."

"We do not need to debate, it is obvious that it is me," preened Sirius.

James smacked Sirius in the back of the head as he went to sit down. Ignoring the outraged "Hey!" from Sirius, he asked Remus, "So, what have you got so far?"

"Nothing to extravagant, mainly plans for the fireworks, we did not want to organise any pranks, Lily would skin us for ruining this ball."

"Fair point, better to stay on the good side of the future wife."

"James, can you get through a single conversation without mentioning the fact that you are getting married?" Sirius moaned.

"Jealous Sirius?"

James ducked as Sirius through a pillow at his head. "I'll take that as a yes then," he laughed.

The conversation turned into a wrestling match. Remus shook his head and picked up a book. "I think this will be a long one Peter, may as well find something else to do."

Peter nodded as he ducked a flying pillow.


	4. Chapter 4

**Next chapter, I'm starting to get to main idea now, things are hopefully flowing a little better. Let me know what you think, I welcome any constructive criticism. Enjoy!**

...

As she hurried down the stairs and through the corridors, Lily couldn't stop thinking, "Why is he here?" She left the castle and entered the maze of gardens. "Where had he gone?" she thought. Lily turned and made her way through the gardens. The paths turned and twisted along. Lily watched as the sun began to dip below the horizon. The ball would begin soon, but Lily had to find out what he was doing here. After another garden bed, and still no sight of him, Lily decided to return to the castle. As she turned around to go back, she saw him.

He was sitting on a bench in a cosy nook. As she started towards him, he stood up.

"Good evening Lily."

"Severus."

…

King Harold and Queen Helen watched as James entered the side chamber off the ballroom. He looked around and his face fell.

"Where is Lily?" he asked.

Queen Helen replied, "I have not seen her, though I am sure she is on her way now. It does take time for us women to prepare for a ball."

James rolled his eyes at his mother in reply. King Harold laughed and motioned to the door. "Shall we?" he asked Helen.

"Yes." she replied. "We will see you both in there James and do try not to ruin your clothes before you enter."

James rolled his eyes again. "Mother, I have not done that for years," he moaned.

As the King and Queen entered the ballroom, James began to pace nervously as he waited for Lily. He heard the door open and turned to greet her with a relieved smile.

But Lily wasn't the one who entered, it was Sirius instead.

"Sirius! What are you doing here?" James asked. Then he noticed the grim look on Sirius' face. "Is something wrong?"

Sirius shifted. "Not as such," he hedged, "Well... I just saw her walking through the gardens."

"Is that all? I was getting a little worried for a second!" James laughed.

"No, that is not all." Sirius paused again. "James, she was talking with Snape."

James felt his face pale. "What is he doing here? He knows that he can never see her again!" he fumed.

"I do not know, but I think you had better check it out. I will wait here in case anyone asks where you went, but I would hurry if I were you." Sirius took up a position by the wall. James nodded to him and left the room.

…

As James walked quickly through the corridors, he recalled the last time he had seen Snape.

_He stood across from Lily as she held James' hand. _

"_Lily, you do not have to marry this man. I thought you hated him."_

"_No Severus, I do not hate him. I might have disliked him at first, but that has changed."_

"_You mean he offered you money and a title and you through yourself at him," Snape snapped spitefully. _

_James watched as Lily drew in a breath. He could see she was fighting to keep her temper. _

"_I do not need to explain myself to you any more Severus. For your information, that is not what happened. All you need to know that I am marrying James and that I love him." _

_Snape took a step backwards. "You love him? Prince James the Big Headed? Please tell me you are joking, you know you do not love him, you loved me. You still love me." Snape was almost pleading with Lily, who just stared at him. _

"_I do love you Severus," James' heart stopped for a second as she said this, "but not in the same way. I love you like a brother, which is how it has always been and will always be."_

"_No." Snape dropped to his knees. "Please Lily, that is not true."_

"_It is Severus," Lily said gently. She squeezed James' hand and turned to him. "I think it is time that we left."_

_As James nodded, Snape rose and shouted angrily, "I will not allow this, Lily!"_

_Lily turned, her red hair splaying out around her. James always loved this side of her, provided her anger was not directed at him. _

"_And what will you do about it Severus? This is my decision, not yours. You cannot interfere and if you dislike it, then, I guess that that is that. If it pains you so much for me to be with James, then I do not want anything to do with you. I know that you joined that 'Dark Lord's' forces. You chose your side and I have chosen mine." Lily turned her back on Snape and walked away. James went with her while watching Snape._

"_This is not the end Lily," he called. _

James was almost running as he entered the gardens. As he worked his way through them, he could here voices up ahead. He turned a corner and saw them. James couldn't believe what he saw.

Lily stood with her arms against Snape's chest, but that wasn't what angered James. What made his blood boil was the sight of her kissing Snape.

James made an outraged noise. The pair broke off and Lily looked at him.

"James!"

James gave her the foulest look he could manage as he left them. As he walked back through the gardens, he heard Snape laughing.


	5. Chapter 5

**This chapter didn't flow as well as I would have liked, I may have to redo it when I'm not so tired. I'd also like to say a big thank you to the people who have favourited my story or added it to their story alerts list: Brownie13, lily1923, ShinabaMorotomo, Mrs. Grint-Cozart-Felton-Horan, hotmama8707 and PrincessofNiight2014. **

...

James stormed back through the palace. He felt like punching a wall, but knew from past experience that that was not the smartest thing to do. "How could she do this to me?" he fumed.

Sirius started as James slammed the door back. "Mate, what is..." but James had already entered the ballroom.

Everyone in the room looked up in astonishment as a furious Prince James stomped in. He walked up to his parents. "James, what is wrong?" asked Queen Helen.

James just shook his head as there was a stir on the other side of the room. Snape was strutting into the room with Lily on his arm. They walked across the silent room and stopped in front of James.

"Well, _Prince James_," Snape drawled, "it looks like the shoe is on the other foot. She loves me, not you."

James looked at Lily. "So everything you told me was a lie? After all this, you turned out to be just like all the other girls, only caring about yourself. You disgust me."

Lily said nothing. That only enhanced James' anger. "Not even talking to me now? How could you do this? If you did not love me, then why did you even bother with the pretence? All you have done is embarrass yourself in front of all these people. I cannot believed that I ever thought I loved you. You are nothing to me, we are no longer betrothed, I renounce all claim I ever had to you, which is apparently nothing anyway. You are banished from these lands. I never want to see you again."

As James seethed at Lily, Remus moved over to stand next to James. "Ah, James? I hate to interrupt, but I think you need to take a closer look and think about this first."

"What are you talking about Remus? This has nothing to do with you, this is between Lily and I."

Snape started laughing. "You should listen to your friend, _Prince James_. You always were as thick as a brick."

"What are you talking about Snape? Why are you even still here? Take your girl and get out of here!" James turned around and went to walk away when Snape laughed again.

"Amazing. I never thought you were that stupid. I would be rather worried if I was one of your subjects, I would not want someone so idiotic being my king. You call Lily selfish? Why, you cannot even see past the end of your nose, you are so absorbed with your own public image. Though, I should not be complaining, since you are the reason that Lily is now mine."

"What are you talking about Snape?" James spat.

Sirius appeared at James' shoulder. "Use your eyes James."

James looked at Lily. Tears streaked from her red eyes . A bruise was forming on her cheek, her hair was a mess. She looked at him bleakly. She opened her mouth to speak but no sound came out.

"Uh uh Lily, behave yourself. Remember what I told you." Lily closed her mouth and looked down.

"I really must thank you Prince James, you made it so easy," mocked Snape. "If you had not walked into that garden, I would not have been able to get this pretty little necklace around my Lily's neck."

"I do not know what you are talking about Snape," James said tersely, "I saw her kissing you in the garden, neither of you can deny that."

"You saw me kissing her, you failed to notice her pushing me away. So unobservant. Not that it matters now, when you arrived it distracted her enough for me to achieve my goal. Now she has to do everything I tell her to do. She is mine now." Snape gloated, "Though, since you were so kind to renounce your claim to her, I suppose I did not even need to do that!"

James did not know what to say. Sirius stepped forward. "Give it up Snape, you cannot expect to just walk out of here with her. You told us your evil scheme, which is all too easy to solve."

"Is it?" Snape looked at Lily and handed her a knife. "Kill Prince James."

"What! Lily, no!" Lily ignored James and came towards him, holding the knife. She was a metre from him when she mouthed "Love you." Her eyes turned up to the balconies above the ballroom, where archers stood waiting. James tried to signal to them not to shoot, but he was frozen in place. Lily lifted the knife and staggered backwards, three arrows protruding from her body. As she fell, Lily smiled at James.

"No!" Snape shouted furiously as he ran to her. He touched her and they both vanished with a loud crack.


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry, only a smaller chapter tonight, it seemed like a good place to end and I need to think about how to work up to the next bit. Also, thanks to harRyY and Greenly-Toxic for adding this to their story alert list and another thanks to harRyY my first reviewer! **

**Extra note: I meant to upload this yesterday, but fanfiction wouldn't let me. So hopefully I will have another update later today if I have the time.**

…

"Come on James, come out with us tonight."

"It is not the same without you James."

"You cannot sulk for ever, a night out would do you some good."

James ignored his friends attempts to coax him to join them.

Sirius sat beside him. "James, it has been almost a year now, it is time to move on."

"Exactly, a year since I killed her. I cannot move on from that Sirius. Leave me alone." James held his head in his hands.

Remus, Sirius and Peter exchanged a look over the top of the slumped man. They had given James his space, but he still hadn't moved past his guilt. His parents and their advisors were getting worried. Queen Helen had confided in them that James had to marry soon, preferably before he became king. The other nobles wanted the succession to be ensured, especially with the growing threat of the latest 'Dark Lord'. If James did not choose a bride himself, then one would be chosen for him.

James' friends knew that James would never agree to any marriage, let alone an arranged one, while he still grieved for Lily. They had been trying for months now to help him, but he had refused all their attempts so far.

Remus spoke up. "James, the Council of Lords are beginning to get impatient. I know you are still grieving, but unless you start helping yourself, they will decide for you. They will choose a girl for you and you will have to marry her."

"They cannot _force_ me to do anything Remus, I am the prince, I am the heir."

"Yes, but with the peril in the south, they want reassurance. James, not many get to marry for love. You might get lucky enough to have that chance again, but only if you start living again."

James sighed. Sirius motioned for the others to leave the room. They had learned to recognise when James had had enough of their talks. As they left, James turned to stare out the window. "Maybe they are right," he thought, "I need to think about what is best for the kingdom." He stood up and went to the door. "You were right," he called, "maybe I do need to go out tonight."

Sirius opened the door with a grin. "I knew you would see sense eventually! And I know just what you need to cheer you up." He held out a box of fireworks.

The grin on James' face was small but it was something.


	7. Chapter 7

**Here's another chapter, I quite like the first part, it was much easier to write than many other parts. I might have to have more scenes with Voldemort as it was quite fun to do. I'm also thinking of changing the rating to M in future chapters, though I am not sure if I will, but I figured I should warn people in advance. Enjoy!**

...

The Dark Lord sat down at the long table. Snape looked at him nervously.

"Well then Severus, when are you going to make an honest woman of that girl?" Voldemort chuckled as he nodded at Lily. She sat on the floor next to Snape, head bowed and hands in her lap.

"I do not know my Lord, she has not agreed to my requests yet," Snape replied demurely.

"Come now Severus, you do not need her agreement, she will do anything that you ask of her." Voldemort looked closer at Snape. "Hmm, but you want her to love you herself. How romantic. I would have thought that after a year she would have given in by now and accepted her fate."

Snape shrugged. Voldemort chuckled again. "She is strong, I will give her that. However, Severus, you have done me great service over the past few years and she is your reward. I promised that she would be yours and it pains me to think that I may not have fulfilled that promise. Lord Voldemort always delivers on his promises."

"Yes my Lord," Severus bowed his head, "thank you my lord."

"Wed her and be done Severus. If you do so, you shall be further rewarded. I can think of no better way of luring that young Prince and his meddlesome friends to their deaths then by the news of your wedding." Voldemort stood, "I will expect my invitation soon Severus." He left the room and silence prevailed once more.

…

"Another round!" Sirius shouted to the buxom barmaid.

"No Sirius, I think we have had enough for one night," Remus protested.

"Haha, there is no such thing Remus my friend!"

James agreed, "Do not spoil this Remus, this is the best I have felt for ages!"

"And it will be the worst you have felt tomorrow morning if you do not stop now. Peter has already passed out and it is going to be hard enough to get him back to the palace without me having to carry you two as well."

"Fine, fine, I suppose you are right." James heaved himself up and promptly fell over onto Sirius, who shoved him off onto the floor.

"Steady on mate!" Sirius laughed.

Remus sighed and levitated Peter up. "This is going to be a fun trip back," he thought sarcastically.

…

The next morning, James awoke to a pounding on his door. "Go away," he mumbled, thought it came out sounding like, "Mmm amum."

Sirius bounced into the room. "Morning James! Rise and shine!" He dodged the pillow that was thrown in his direction.

Sirius came over to James' bedside. "Up you get James, your father has called for you."

"Well tell him that I shall not move for anything this morning," James said, or at least, meant to say.

"I have no idea what you said James." Sirius lifted up James' mattress and rolled his friend onto the floor. He landed with a resounding thud.

"Oi!" James fought to get out of his bedclothes so he could throttle Sirius, who just danced out of the room giggling like a maniac.

Once he was standing, James washed his face in the basin, got dressed, tried to make his hair presentable, gave up trying to make it lay flat and left the room. He arrived at his father's chambers and entered.

King Harold looked up as his son came to stand in front of him. His expression was grim.

"Is something wrong Father?"

"Ah, James. A letter arrived this morning that I thought you might find, well, interesting." The king handed James a piece of card. On it was written:

_We are delighted to announce that_

_Lily Marie Evans_

_and_

_Severus Snape_

_are to be joined forever in marriage on the _

_15th of May, this year._

James stared at his father in shock. "Is this some kind of joke? Lily is dead."

His father replied gently, "James, I do not know. All I know is that this announcement was delivered by a messenger that bore the crest of the so called 'Lord Voldemort'."

"Well then, maybe I should go and pay my respects to the happy couple then." James turned to leave the room.

"James, stop. This is likely to be a trap. They know that you would not resist the chance to determine the truth of this matter. I do not want to lose my only son this way."

"Do not fear Father," said James through clenched teeth, "I shall be fine. If Lily is alive, then there are some things that I need to say to her. If she is dead, then I shall kill Snape. Actually, I will kill him anyway."

King Harold watched as he stormed out. "Do not say anything that you may regret James," he called, but James was already gone.


	8. Chapter 8

**Long chapter today, I'm not sure if I will be able to update tomorrow, so I wrote a bit more today. Thanks again to harRyY, I'm glad you are enjoying it! I think this chapter is still rated T, but the next one may have to go up to M, depends if I decide to skip over bits or not. Enjoy!**

...

They had spent five days out in the forest. Sirius was not happy. His hair was filthy, he smelt like horse and there were no lovely ladies to comfort him.

"Tell me again why we could not have just flown there? Or Apparated? Or any other method of transport except for horse?" he whined.

"Sirius, I told you before, this 'Dark Lord' is bound to have magical protections around the place. We are much more inconspicuous on horse." James sighed. They had had this conversation a lot over the last few days.

"So, what is stopping us running into protections designed to keep people on horses out?"

"Huh, umm, luck?"

"Great," humphed Sirius.

…

At the end of the sixth day, they arrived at a gloomy castle.

"This is it," said James, "We had better hide the horses and go on foot from here."

As they walked up to the castle gates, guards streamed out to intercept them.

"I think this has been your best idea ever," Sirius moaned. "Your most bloody stupid, idiotic plan to get us all killed."

"Shut up Sirius, they are not going to kill us."

"Yet."

"When did you become so pessimistic."

"When did you start using big words? Can you even spell 'pessimistic'?"

"I have been using big words for years Sirius, it is not my fault if you never learnt them too."

"Be quiet both of you," Remus muttered.

The guards surrounded them and the captain approached. "State your business here."

"We have come to see your master, Severus Snape. We are old friends," James replied.

"Very well. You will need to hand over all your weapons, including your wands."

"What?" yelped Sirius.

"Just do it," muttered James.

"No way, I am not letting some other man touch my wand."

"You do not have a problem whipping it out to impress the ladies."

"I will have you know, it is an excellent specimen of a wand."

The guards were giving them strange looks by now. Remus nudged Sirius, who sighed.

"You lot had better take care of it, I depend on that wand to win over the ladies." He pulled it out and placed it on a bench near the gatehouse. The others followed suit.

"Hey! Where is your wand?" The captain asked Peter. Peter just trembled and looked at James.

"Do not worry about him, he is a Squib, he does not have one."

"Hmm, right then. Follow me."

They followed the captain, still surrounded by the other guards. Sirius kept muttering about the indignity of letting them have his wand. They were led through the castle and into a large hall. Snape stood at the far end. Standing next to him was Lily.

"You may leave," Snape told the guards. He watched as James and his friends walked towards him, "Well well well, look at what the cat dragged in my dear. I do not think I have ever seen a band of such raggle taggle men in my life."

James ignored Snape and looked at Lily. Her head was bowed, she did not acknowledge any of them. "You are alive then."

Snape laughed. "Oh yes, she is very alive. I take it you received our wedding announcement then?"

James stared at Lily. She still had not moved in the slightest.

"Ignoring me? How rude. After all, you are my guests here. A little early for the wedding but if you wanted to stay until then, I am sure it could be arranged."

"I do not think so," James coldly said. "I have come here to speak to Lily, not you."

"Well then, go ahead, I am not stopping you."

"I suppose it is too much trouble to ask you to leave the room?"

"So you can try to enact some daring rescue attempt? No."

"We are not here to rescue her, obviously she has made her choice."

"Oh! Then do not let me get in the way! Please, tell her all that you wanted to," Snape smiled.

"Lily. Are you going to look at me? Obviously not. I was hoping that at least I would be able to talk to you face to face." She made no response. "Fine. I am here to say that since you have chosen Snape, you are banished from my kingdom for life. If you enter it again, you shall die, properly this time."

Lily still did not look up.

"I must say, I am a little surprised, I never thought you would be so rude. I have spent a year mourning you, thinking you had died, when instead, it was all just some clever ruse that you pulled off so you could be with Snape. I do not know why you even bothered, unless you just think it is fun to mess with people's heads. You must be as evil as the rest of them if you have chosen their side. I am disappointed in you Lily. I thought you were the love of my life. Everyone at court thought you were the sweetest, nicest person they had ever met, but it was all a lie. I cannot even stand the sight of you, I hope I never see you again or I may just kill you myself."

"Wow Prince James, so many words from that handsome mouth! And I thought you were just a lump of muscle with no thoughts in that big head," Snape mocked.

"Shut up Snape. I am not talking to you, just your whore."

Snape laughed again. "Strong words, especially for a Prince. I think you just made my day, I think that little speech will entertain me for a long time actually. Did you want to leave now, or continue to shout at my bride?"

"I think I am done. I am disappointed that she is just ignoring us, though I would be just as ashamed if I had been such a disgusting whore. I must say, I am glad I did not marry her. I would have been even more angry I think. At least I never dirtied myself with her, she is all yours Snape."

James turned to leave, his friends followed suit. As they were walking away, Snape didn't stop laughing. The guards that had escorted them earlier blocked the doorway.

"What is going on now?" Sirius murmured.

"A trap, obviously," Snape said. "You did not think that it would be that easy did you? Sure, if you were here to rescue Lily, it would have been much harder. I am almost tempted to let you go, it is so entertaining to watch your anger at Lily. But unfortunately, the Dark Lord wants you dead, so that is how it shall be."

"Watch it Snape. Do you really want to start a war over this?"

"The war has already started, or have you been so caught up in your grief that you did not notice?"

James made a lunge for Snape, but missed and hit Lily. Or rather, passed right through her.

"What?" They were all stunned. Snape was almost wetting himself, he was laughing so hard.

"Did you really think that I would have the real Lily here? I would not risk her that way."

"Where is she?" James asked, then changed his mind, "No, actually, I do not care."

"Since you asked, she is up there." They all looked up at the balconies around the room.

"Keep looking higher." Snape said.

They saw her. She was on the ceiling, held up by a spell they could not see. Her hair hung down, but they could still see her face, as well as the tears that dripped from her eyes.

"How could you do that?" James asked, outraged, "I thought that you loved her."

"Oh, I do. I am just having some trouble convincing her of that though."

"If that is how you treat her, then I am not surprised." Sirius said.

"Hmm, I am astonished, she has never shed a tear in the whole year. I am glad I let you lot in, you do so much damage. Usually it is annoying, but today, I am most grateful." Snape smiled evily, "Take them to the dungeons."


	9. Chapter 9

**Small update, I'll write more tonight hopefully. I'm thinking the next chapter will have to be M, I've tried to keep it to a T so far, but I think I will lose part of the story if I just leave the next part out. Thanks to Me Lyla and number1fanpire26 for adding my story, I really appreciate the support. Enjoy!**

...

The door closed with a slam as they were locked into their cell.

"Nice one James," Sirius said, "now we are in a dungeon and going to die at some unknown moment."

"Shut it Sirius, you are being pessimistic again."

"Pessimistic?! No, I am just telling it like it is!"

Remus interrupted before their argument got out of hand. "Enough. What is the plan now?"

"Uhh, to be honest, I did not expect this." James dodged as Sirius lunged for him.

"At least I still have a wand," Peter said.

"True, there is that, nice work by the way Peter," James complimented.

"It was nothing, I figured one of us needed to have something on us if this happened. Unlike some of you, I thought that this is where we would probably end up."

"No need to rub it in Peter," James sulked,

"I ask again, what is our plan?" Remus interrupted again.

"I suppose, we wait until the door is opened, then Peter can bust us out. We can just sit here and relax and once he has finished them all off, we can just toddle off home."

"Thanks James, I really appreciate that."

"Think nothing of it."

"Right, so we just sit here and wait then." Remus leaned against the wall and sighed, "I should have brought a book."

…

Severus was gloating. Lily hated it when he gloated.

"I am still amazed at their stupidity, seriously, who just walks into a trap?"

Lily wished she could answer with some spiteful comment. She had barely spoken in the last year. "Not by choice," she thought. The necklace that he had trapped her with not only bound her magic, but forced her to comply with his wishes. If she fought against them, she experienced increasingly mind-numbing pain until she had to agree. "What a way to woo a women," she thought, not for the first time.

"So my dearest Lily, have you given up hope of a daring rescue yet? You heard it yourself, he does not love you, he does not even want you around. You are nothing but a whore to him."

Lily stared blankly at him, daring him with her eyes to remove her restrictions to talk.

"Still do not believe me. I will prove it further if you wish. Come."

She longed to refuse him, but it was not worth the pain for something so small. She followed him out of the room and down to the dungeons.


	10. Chapter 10

**I might stop here for now, I like a little bit of suspense! I might put up another chapter tonight though, depends how bored I am later. Rating is now M, better to be safe then sorry. Thanks to siriuslygoode for adding my story to their alert list. Enjoy!**

...

Remus heard someone enter the dungeons. He kicked James and Sirius, both had fallen asleep awhile ago. When they stirred, he held his fingers to his lips. They nodded an acknowledgement as all four of them listened to the footsteps coming closer.

They looked out through the bars of their cell and watched as Snape came into view, Lily trailing behind him. He stopped in front of them. "Enjoying your stay?" he asked. There were blank stares in return. He laughed, "Still as thick as anything then I see, not that it will matter much longer."

"Are you here to talk us to death Snape?" Sirius yawned. "I am sure there are worse ways to die then being so bored you just give up living."

"Oh do not worry, your death will come soon enough. The Dark Lord himself wishes to be present at your execution, to make sure it is properly done. I may be lucky enough to be the one that kills you, but I shall not mind too much if I am not, it should be good entertainment nevertheless."

"How kind of you Snape, we shall treasure these last days then. Now if you will excuse us..." Sirius lay back down as if to go to sleep.

"Do what you wish Black, I am not here for any of you."

"What are you doing then?" James asked.

Snape smirked at him in reply. He turned and opened the opposite cell. "Get in there," he ordered. Lily entered as Snape closed the door behind her. He flicked his wand, but James couldn't hear what the spell was. Snape came back over to stand on front of James.

"What are you doing Snape? Why is she in there?" James questioned. He noticed Lily flinch as he spoke.

Snape smirked again. "Nothing that concerns you, Prince James. Just a little spell to prove a point to dearest Lily."

"Are you ever going to speak straight Snape?" Lily flinched again. "What have you done to her?"

"Oh, I have not hurt her. You are."

"How could I have hurt her? I am not even close."

"You do not need to be. Every time you speak, she hears you calling her a variety of foul names. I assure you, I was quite creative, I think it will take awhile before they repeat."

"She knows that I am not saying those things Snape, she heard you say as much."

"Did she?" Snape sniggered and left the dungeons.

Remus came over to James who was seething. "All you have to do is not speak James, that should be easy enough."

"Easy for you to say Remus." James watched as Lily twitched.

…

Lily did not know how much time had passed, she never paid much attention to things any more. She was glad James had stopped though, she did not know how much more she could take of the insults. Lily was sure that it had been a trick by Snape, James would not talk like that while in a conversation with Snape. But it had been harder and harder to keep telling herself that as the night had worn on.

She must have dozed off again because the next thing she knew, James was in front of her.

"Wakey wakey whore, time to get up."

Lily stared at him, not comprehending what was happening. James scowled at her. She moved to the side, but it wasn't enough to avoid the kick in her abdomen.

"I said, get up whore." He kicked her again.

Lily felt the necklace take hold, she had to get up or else. "That is not James, it has to be Snape," she told herself. She got to her feet, only to be knocked down again. She looked across into the other cell. She could see Remus, Sirius and Peter, looking on with horrified expressions, but no James. "It is a trick, it has to be," she repeated to herself as James hit her again and again.

James smirked at her as he lifted her up to his level. "So this is the reception I get, I mourned you for a year and then I find out that you have been with Snape all this time. How could you do that to me Lily?" He threw her across the room, into the wall.

Lily lost track of how often this happened, He kept shouting at her, accusing her, hurting her. All she could do was to keep telling herself that it was not James, he would not do this to her. Her conviction waned as he guessed what she was doing.

"You think that I am just Snape? That it is all a trick?" he laughed. He went on to describe things that only he would know. Lily's heart fell as he told how they had first met, how he had proposed, even repeated back conversations that only the two of them had had. All while he continued to hit her. As he reached to rip her dress off, all Lily felt was despair.


	11. Chapter 11

**Another chapter, I wanted to continue, but I really need some sleep. Thanks to Mrs. Grint-Cozart-Felton-Horan for the review, I hope you enjoy the quick update! **

...

When Lily awoke, she felt like one big bruise, but that was not a new feeling. Snape had not been kind to her in the last year. "Who would have thought someone so scrawny could be so strong?" she thought wryly. As she went to role over, she stifled a groan. Lily refused to give Snape the pleasure of hearing her pain.

She sat up and surveyed the damage. "Not the worst I have ever had. No bones broken, ooph," she twitched, "maybe a broken rib or two." Her arms were covered in bruises, she didn't bother to look to closely at the rest of her. She could feel that there was barely any skin that hadn't been marked. After coming to terms with the injuries, she braced herself to look at _them_. The shock hadn't completely hit, but Lily knew that it would soon. She looked over at the other cell.

Three of the boys, "Men now," she thought, sat against one wall. Their expression was hard to read, Lily could not tell what they were thinking. The other one sat opposite them. His knees were up at his ears, he looked like he was trying to hide from the looks of his friends.

Sirius noticed that Lily was awake. He nudged Remus and Peter and they all looked at her. Lily looked away, she had no wish to try and decipher their thoughts. She did not think that she would be able to cope with either their hate or their pity. She heard as they murmured to James. She still refused to look, she dreaded what she would see there. It would make the whole thing real, Lily did not want to break down in front of them.

Snape appeared at the door, Lily longed to slap the smirk off of his face. He crouched down in front of her and tutted. "Dear me, you do look a mess." he said as he reached out to grip her chin, forcing her to look at him, "Do you believe me yet? I told you that he hated you and you cannot deny that now. I must say, that was mighty enjoyable to watch! The mighty Prince James, renowned across the land as being so kind to the ladies, throwing the once love of his life around the room. Ah, that will be a story to spread around I think, it seems almost a shame to kill him when it would be much more fun to ruin his reputation instead."

Lily turned her eyes, she did not wish to remember. Snape saw the movement and laughed again. "You could save yourself the pain my dear, all you have to do is give yourself to me, willingly, and you will never know pain again. I have given you this choice many times, but maybe this will be the time you take the chance. You know that he does not love you, he hates you. But I do Lily, I will never lay a finger on you again if you agree to my requests."

He stood up and looked down on her. "I will let you think about it, but I warn you, I am growing impatient. Soon, you will become my bride, willing or not. And if not, then your life shall be a misery, for as long as it shall be. I give you until then to decide, though I shall ask everyday." He left the room and called back, "I live in hope my lovely flower!"

Lily held her head in her hands. She did not want to believe him, but it was hard not to. Maybe it was time to give in.

…

_Earlier that evening..._

James had stopped talking, but he was not happy. He could see that Lily was close to breaking, as strong as she was, a year with Snape and however many horrors he had forced on her were taking their toll. She was asleep now, but the dream she had was not a happy one, she was tossing and turning, every so often an arm would come up to cover her face from an unseen blow.

The door to the dungeon opened and Snape entered. Sirius looked up and grimaced, "You are going to wear the door off the hinges if you keep coming and going."

"Black, you bore me. I do not care for your chatter." Snape looked over at Lily as she slept. He smirked at James, "Such a pretty thing is she not? I can see why you were so attracted to her, even though she was mine. You stole her from me, but that does not matter any more. I just need to convince her of that fact. And you shall help me."

"Do you just enjoy the sound of your voice? You talk so much, no wonder Lily has bad dreams if this is what you say all the time," Sirius interrupted.

Snape shot a Silencing spell at Sirius before turning back to James. "_Imperio,_" he said. James fought, but Snape forced him from the room before he could argue.


	12. Chapter 12

**Today's update, a bit longer than normal, I might update later tonight if I'm not too tired. Thanks to LJ Dreamer for adding the story to their alert list, I really appreciate all the people that have added my story, it keeps me wanting to write! Enjoy!**

…

Snape made James go into a cell done the corridor, away from his friends. Once in, Snape removed the Imperius curse but kept his wand trained on James. He conjured a chair and gestured with his spare hand, "Take a seat."

James looked at it out of the corner of his eye, he did not take his eyes off Snape. "I think I am fine standing here."

Snape threw a curse at James, who found himself bound to the chair. James gave Snape a dirty look, "Why not try that again while I have my wand Snape? Being fair might do you some good."

"Enough talk." Snape bent down so that he could see into James' eyes.

"Aww Snape, I did not know that that is how you felt about me. I am touched."

Snape did not deign to reply, he merely flicked his wand and silenced James.

"Tell me how you first met Lily."

James found himself thinking back to that day. He knew Snape was using Legilimency and tried to block him, without success.

_Sirius was riding with him as they tore through a village. They were laughing carelessly and weren't paying much attention to where they were going. A surprised shriek alerted them to a young girl who had been knocked down by someone jumping out of the way of the horses. Sirius and James halted their horses. Sirius was laughing so hard it looked like he would fall from his saddle. _

_The girl got up from the ground and approached them. As she began to tell them off for their carelessness, all James could think about was how beautiful she was. Her long red hair had the faintest of curls to it, her eyes were large and such a lovely shade of green. She was altogether stunning. _

"_Are you even listening to me? What gives you the right to terrorise people in such a manner?"_

_Sirius stopped laughing to answer her. "I am Lord Sirius __of the House of Black and this is His Highness, Prince James. Considering he owns all of you, I think that is what gives us the right to do as we wish."_

_The girl was red with rage by now. "Owns us? Owns us?" her voice screeched through a couple of octaves, yet James thought it was the most divine voice he had ever heard. _

_She ranted for what seemed like an age. When she paused to take a breath, James lent down from his horse.,"Tell me your name."_

"_Why should I do that? You have done nothing but treat me and everyone here as if we were dirt."_

"_I only asked for your name, nothing more."_

"_You did not ask, you ordered. I shall not obey some order from some Prince who thinks that he is the Lord of everything."_

"_I am the Prince of this realm, my orders are to be obeyed."_

"_Oh really?" _

_With that, she flicked her wand and a cow pat from a nearby field flew into James' face. He sat up with surprise. His horse was startled by the sudden movement and choose that moment to bolt away, James clinging to the saddle with all his might. By the time he got his horse under control and Sirius had caught up to him, he had managed to clean himself up._

"_Should I send a squadron of men done to arrest that girl. She did assault a member of the Royal Family."_

"_No Sirius, that would only make her dislike me more. She is an intriguing girl, I would like to find out more about her."_

"_Oh no James, this is going to be Isabella all over again."_

"_What are you talking about Sirius?"_

"_For two years, all we heard form you was 'Isabella this' and 'Isabella that', it was enough to drive us mental."_

"_Do not be ridiculous Sirius, I will not do that."_

_Sirius watched as James walked off with a dreamy expression on his face. He knew that this was not going to be good._

"How sweet. I had wondered what Lily had done to get the attention of an arrogant Prince," Snape sniggered. James scowled at him but could not reply. Snape laughed and dived into James' mind once more.

…

When Snape had finished violating James' mind, he stood back to gloat over his captive. "I thank you, _Your Highness_, that was most informative."

He positioned a mirror in front of James. In it, he could see Lily, still fast asleep.

"I think I have all that I need now, oh, I almost forgot something." He plucked a few of James' hair and added them to a bottle of potion that was in his belt. James watched as Snape drank it and transformed into the spitting image of himself. Snape chuckled and made a copy of James' glasses.

"I would just take yours," he explained, "but I do so want you to watch your darling Lily."

Snape swaggered out of the room and James watched as he entered Lily's cell.

…

When Snape was finished, Lily had passed out, he came back to James' cell. "That was the most fun I think I have ever had! I thank you again Prince James, I have had such a lovely time!" Snape smirked as he released James' bonds. James watched as Snape transformed back into his usual greasy haired self. With a snarl, he tried to punch Snape, but he was immobilised before he could reach him.

"Really Your Highness? I expected better of you. Well, not really, I suppose a Prince would always be a sore loser. Go run back to your friends, I am sure they are dying to give you an earful about what you have done."

"What _you _did, you mean."

"Were you not watching? It was you that did all that, not me." Snape laughed again as he made James walk back to his first cell. The looks on his friends face's were not happy. James almost shrank back as they glared at him.

Snape left, still laughing, as James sat across from his friends. Sirius was the first to break the silence. "How could you James? What did Snape say to you that would make you do that?"

"Sirius, that was not me. It was Snape."

"Pull the other one James, Snape would not have known those things."

"He is a Legilimens Sirius, that is how he found out. I had to watch as he..." James couldn't go on. He put his head in his hands.

"Sorry James. We did not know. Snape was pretty convincing." Sirius came over next to James. "It really was not you?"

James looked them all in the eye. "No. I would never do that, even if I did hate Lily, I would never treat her, or any woman, that way."

Peter gave James a pat on the back. After awhile, James could not stand any more of their pity. "Please, I just need to sit and think for a bit." His friends backed off as they all sat to watch and wait.


	13. Chapter 13

**A longer chapter today to make up for the lack of updates. Thanks to lady-chan and Michael4HPGW for adding this to their story alerts list. Enjoy!**

...

Snape stalked into to the dungeons. He was having the best time of his life. Not only had he imprisoned his childhood tormentors, he had also destroyed their reputation with Lily. He had been to see her everyday for the past three days and had given her the same choice. She had refused at first, but yesterday she had given no answer. He could see she was almost broken, only a little more nudging and she would be his.

"Good evening my lovely flower," he said as he entered. He watched as she jolted in surprise, she must not have heard him coming. Normally she would have glared at him, now she barely looked in his direction. He crouched down in front of her and offered her a rose, "For you my dearest."

Lily barely blinked. Snape looked at her more carefully. She did not appear to be sick, but something was wrong.

"Lily, tell me what is wrong." He watched as she shuddered as the spells on her tried to force her to answer, but she said nothing, she just kept staring vaguely.

"Maybe she is just bored with all your theatrics Snape," Sirius called from his cell. "The poor girl has had to put up with them for so long."

Snape ignored the comments. Instead, he took Lily's chin so he could look into her eyes. He searched her mind for what she was thinking. Snape was stunned to find that there was nothing there at all, it was like someone had wiped her mind clean.

He stood up with a snarl and went to the cell with his enemies. "What have you done?" he shouted at them.

"Hey, we have not done anything. How could we, it is not like we have a wand," Sirius protested.

"Tell me! How long has she been like this?"

"I really could not say, she has been sitting there like that for the last few days now. What do you care anyway, that is what you wanted was it not? She looks like her spirit has been broken to me, I thought that is what you were going for," Sirius mocked.

"I ask you again, what have you lot done to her? I had her right where I wanted, she was about to agree to anything I asked. All this hard work could have been wasted by you!"

"What hard work? It seems to me that all you have done is strut about like a greasy bat for the last week or so."

"You would not know the meaning of hard work Black, do not question my ability to work. I had to endure being _him_," he pointed at James, "so that I could destroy his reputation. I did not want Lily to ever be touched by someone other than myself, I had to let that happen so I could prove to her that he hates her."

"Well, no, that was still you, so really your goal has been accomplished. Good job!" Sirius gave Snape a round of applause as he watched him slowly reach boiling point.

"Yes, but Lily does not know that," Snape spat. "She is mine and she always will be, she just needs to realise that."

Sirius smiled. "Oh, I think she has most definitely realised something," he said as he looked over Snape's shoulder.

Snape turned around. Lily was sitting up, looking at him with a horrified expression. She slowly got to her feet. "So it was all a trick?" she asked.

Snape stormed into her cell. "What are you talking about Lily, of course it was not a trick."

"You just said that it was not James who was here, it was you. Clever, you almost had me convinced."

"Shut up! How are you speaking anyway, I have not given you permission to speak."

"Ah, actually, you did you asked her to tell you what was wrong," Remus piped up.

Snape was furious. He lashed out at Lily and knocked her down. He vented all his anger onto her, how dare she rebel against him. He ignored the shouted protests from the other cell as he conjured a whip. "You will pay for this Lily, I gave you plenty of chances to be mine, you can see what happens when you do not take them."

…

James paced around the room. Snape had taken Lily upstairs hours ago and James was getting worried.

"Calm down James, I do not think Snape will kill her, or even hurt her too badly, he wants to marry her," Sirius said.

"You saw what he was like, he was furious."

"Lily knows the truth now, that is all that matters."

"I think it is time to break out now," James said decisively.

"We already discussed this, we do not want to try and escape and end up being captured or killed as soon as we leave the room."

"Snape is busy now, let us get Lily and leave."

"Yes, he is busy, but Lily is probably with him, how are you going to get her."

"Easy, I just have to kill him." James smiled vindictively.

"Steady on mate, you know it is not going to be that easy. We need to plan this one out thoroughly."

"Sirius is right James, we need a plan. If we just run out of here without one, we will be the ones that die," said Remus.

"Fine, lets plan then."

…

Lily ached. Snape had healed her injuries but had decided that the pain from them could stay. "I do not want you to die," he had remarked, "but I want you to fully appreciate your decision." She drifted in and out of consciousness, not paying attention to what was happening.

A blurry voice penetrated the fogginess, "Here she is my Lord."

Lily felt the person's footsteps as they approached. "Ah, nice work Severus. I am most pleased with you. It was a cunning plan, though it is a shame it did not fully work."

Lily heard a mumbled reply.

"Do not trouble yourself Severus. I promised you this girl and since you have captured those troublemakers, I am eager to fulfil my promise entirely. She will be yours willingly before the morning."

Lily tried to rise when she heard those words. "Oh no, little Lily, do not resist. It will be so much easier if you were to give yourself over now." Lily shook her head.

"_Crucio_."

…

A scream startled James and his friends from their planning.

"That was Lily!" James jumped up.

"Sit down James, we cannot do anything until we finish our plans."

"We have to do something now!" James clenched his fists, he felt so helpless.

"Come on Remus, they are almost done, lets break out of here," Sirius begged Remus with puppy dog eyes.

"Fine. But do not say I did not warn you. Peter, if you would do the honours."

They had determined that the bars of the cell were enchanted, but the spaces between them weren't. All they had to do was enlarge the gaps and they could get out. Peter went first and opened up the door to the dungeons. He promptly Stunned the two guards there before they could react.

"Thanks Peter!" James said. Sirius and James took the guards wands. As they went along, they Stunned another two guards that were patrolling. Remus chose from their wands before they continued. Another scream from overhead made them hurry. They entered a large hall and stopped.

Snape was standing in the middle of the room, watching as Lily lay on the floor. A tall man stood over her, though James had never seen such a snakelike person before.

"Well Severus, it looks like we have some visitors. Would you care to introduce us?"

"My Lord, these are the ones you wanted."

"Ah, and they are here to rescue the lovely lady and take off. How sweet," the man chuckled menacingly.

James and his friends pointed their wands at him.

"Now now, we were just having a pleasant conversation. Put down the wands please."

"No, I do not think we will." James replied.

"Very well," he said before throwing a curse at Lily, who arched up off the floor in pain.

James through a hex at the Dark Lord, who blocked it.

"Oh Severus, what has become of young people these days? So impolite. I had wanted to offer you boys the opportunity to work with me, it is hard to come by such talented people. Maybe I will just have to have some fun instead."

James felt his wand leave his hand before he was bound to a chair. Looking around, his friends were in a similar predicament.

"Hmm, I was expecting a fight, that was too easy. I may have to have some fun in a different way then."

"Master, please kill them now. They are too much trouble to leave alive."

"Do not be jealous Severus, I think they have made their intentions clear. They shall die soon enough."

…

Lily watched as the Dark Lord cursed James repeatedly. Snape was laughing as all four of them were alternately tortured. Lily knew she had to do something, she could not let them die here. Snape's attention was not on her as she slowly rose and crept towards him. He had always kept her wand in his pocket, he liked to use it to taunt her. She reached towards the pocket and carefully drew out her wand. The necklace she wore stopped her from performing magic, but Snape had tied the enchantment to her wand. He had often told her that as soon as she agreed to his wishes, she could have her wand back and with that she would be free from the cursed thing. She touched the wand to the necklace and felt it vanish away.

Lily smiled as she felt her magic return. She quickly Stunned Severus before releasing James and his friends and sending their wands back to them.

The Dark Lord turned. "Think carefully girl," he warned, "you could have riches and power beyond your reckoning if you just obliged poor Severus. If you do not, then you and your boy shall die."

Lily replied with a hex. All five of them began duelling the Dark Lord who just laughed. "You cannot defeat me, I am the most powerful being in the world."

While he was laughing, Peter snuck off behind him and cast a spell. The Dark Lord whipped around. "Do not think you can trick me!" Before he could curse Peter, the other four all attacked at once. The Dark Lord hissed, grabbed Severus and vanished.

Lily smiled as the floor swam up to meet her. She felt someone catch her as her eyes closed.


	14. Chapter 14

**Only a short chapter today, I am trying to decide whether I should end the story here or keep going and see where it goes. Let me know what you think! Thanks to TerminatethisAccount and ilovelollipops923 for adding the story to their alert lists.**

...

James paced around his room as he waited for news of Lily. It had been no trouble to collect their weapons and wands from the guards at the gate. Sirius had complained so much about riding home again that they had Apparated back. Remus and Peter had gone to find the horses and transport them home. Now, all James had to do was wait.

"Would you relax James? She will be fine, there is no point in working yourself up," said Sirius as he lounged on James' bed.

"I need something to do Sirius."

"Then go and find your parents and listen to another lecture on how stupid, reckless and thoughtless we all are."

"Ah, they did not mind too much, they are happy to have Lily back."

"Well then, go to the Council of Lords and listen to their criticisms again."

"Only some of them are criticising, I know Dumbledore for one is glad that we went."

"He is crazy James."

"True, but since he is the one that knows the most about that Dark Lord guy, then we should listen to his opinion."

"You are only saying that because you like his opinion."

"Caught me."

"You cannot fool me James."

"I can too!"

"No you cannot."

Remus entered the room and saw Sirius and James having another wrestling match. "Come on, can you two even go a day without this happening?"

"No," they chorused.

Remus shook his head and left them to it.

…

Lily woke up to an unfamiliar room. She tried to sit up, but someone pushed her back down.

"I think it would be best for you to take it easy today Lily."

Lily looked at the women. "Madame Pomfrey? What are you doing here?"

The women laughed, "I am where I should be. You are in the palace Lily, I am the one who has been treating you."

Lily looked around the room with confusion. She recognised the room as the one that she had had while she had been here. "How did I get here?"

"I believe Prince James brought you in, he was most worried about you."

Lily was stunned. Madame Pomfrey used the moment to her advantage, "Drink this potion dear, you need some more rest."

She did as she was told and soon found herself slipping back into sleep.


	15. Chapter 15

**An update! I apologise for how long it's been, I'm having a very busy year with study and family. A big thank you to Jannice Sace for the review and the story alert, this chapter is for you! Another big thanks to isabellasvl, Somebodyrandom, missfall and Sleepnotawake for adding this story to their alert and favourite lists, it's always good to know that people are enjoying it! I should update soon, maybe even later tonight if I feel like procrastinating some more! Enjoy!**

...

Lily stood at her window and looked out over the familiar gardens. It seemed like the last year had never happened, that it had just been a bad dream. She sighed and went back to sit on her bed with a wince. Madame Pomfrey had done her best, but there were still a few little aches and pains that would just have to heal with time. As she lay back down, Lily could not help but wonder what it would be like when she saw James. She had not seen him or his friends since they had returned. Queen Helen had stopped by with a bunch of flowers and to tell Lily how pleased she was to have her back, but there was no mention of James or his friends.

A soft knock came from the door. Lily sat up quickly and called for the knocker to come in. She was slightly disappointed to see that it was Remus who entered.

He laughed when he saw her expression. "Expecting someone else where you?"

"Maybe," she admitted with a grin. "Not that I am upset to see you though!"

Remus gave her another smile and came to join her on the bed. "I did bring you some chocolate so you would not be too disappointed."

"I swear Remus, you just became my favourite person ever," Lily said with relish as she looked over the chocolates. After selecting one, she offered the box to Remus who nodded his thanks. "So, to what do I owe the honour of a visit?"

"Do I need a reason?"

Lily gave him a sideline glance. Remus laughed in reply. "Fine, you caught me. A certain black haired man was enquiring as to your welfare and I decided to do him a favour."

"You mean, you came so that he would shut up about it and stop driving you mental."

"More or less," smiled Remus. "He is driving all of us mental. Dumbledore thought that it would be best if James waited until you were ready to see him, just in case..." he trailed off.

"Just in case I did not want to see him? Or just in case I had gone completely crazy?"

"You know that is not the reason Lily, no one thinks you are crazy."

"No, but they think that I have been scarred so badly by _him_ that I will not want to see James."

"Do not be silly Lily, that is not true."

"Is it not?"

Remus looked at her. "We all know that you have been hurt Lily." He held up a hand to quiet her outburst. "But we would be stupid to think that it will have changed how you feel about him."

Lily smiled at Remus, "Thank you, I am glad I have you to back me up."

He replied with a hug. "Now, what message would you like me to carry to your beloved who pines for you so?" he asked with an elaborate bow.


	16. Chapter 16

**Update! Sorry it's a short one, I'm still trying to work out where I want to take the story next. Thanks again to Jannice Sace for the lovely review, here is another update for you! I'll work on doing a longer chapter today, enjoy!**

...

Remus had barely gotten back through the door before he was pinned to the wall by a frantic James. "What the..."

"What happened? What did she say? Is she alright? Does she need anything? Can I go see her? Does she want a puppy?"

"Would you just calm down and let me go?!"

"Right, sorry mate." James stepped back as Remus straightened his clothes. "Now, tell me, what happened? What should I do? Breakfast in bed? No, it is dinner time, dinner in bed?"

"James!"

"Sorry, I..."

"If you would just be quiet for a minute, I can tell you!" shouted an exasperated Remus. He glared at James until he sat down. "Lily is fine. We just talked, she was a little disappointed that you have not gone to see her and I told her what Dumbledore said. We ate some chocolate, I do not know if you can see her and I do not think she needs a puppy!"

"Are you sure? Lily might like to have a cute little puppy to cuddle until she can see James," said Sirius.

"Sirius, please, be sensible."

"Sensible? Why on earth would I want to do that?"

Remus sighed, "James, Lily wants to see you, you may as well go and talk to your parents and see if you can go see her."

"Great!" James left the room as quickly as he could.

"At least that should stop him whining for an hour or so," remarked Sirius.

Peter nodded fervently, "If only we could be so lucky."

…

James tried to make it look as if he had not been running when he entered his parents chambers. Queen Helen looked up from her tapestry in astonishment. "James, what are you doing? Please tell me you are not trying to hide from Sirius in my rooms again."

"What? No, of course not!"

"Good, I do not think I could stand the sight of Sirius searching through my rooms again," she said with a shudder. "Why are you here then?"

"Remus just went to see Lily and she wants to see me so can I go and see her, please please please please..."

"James, stop that! If she wants to see you, then of course you can go and see her."

"Really? But I could not go before, I was expecting more of an argument."

"You could not go before because I do not think Lily would appreciate waking up to having you staring at her, especially after what happened."

"I would not stare!"

Queen Helen gave him a look.

"Alright, maybe just a little. So you are saying that I can go and see her?"

"Yes James, I am. And do not think that I do not know what is going on here, I know that you came to ask me first rather than your father."

James grinned sheepishly and ran off.

…


	17. Chapter 17

**Slightly longer update for you all today, I put in a little bit of fluff, I figured Lily and James probably deserved some by now. Another big thankyou to ****Jannice Sace for the review, ****I had to keep writing because then I wanted to know how their meeting would go too! Enjoy!**

...

James stood nervously outside Lily's room. As he was working up the courage to knock on the door, it opened in front of him.

"Are you going to come in or just stand there looking like an idiot?"

Her smile almost knocked him over. He had missed that smile.

"James?"

Lily's voice woke him from his trance. With a jolt, he gave an awkward bow and handed her a bunch of roses that he had behind his back. "For you, my lady."

It was Lily's turn to be stunned. "Wow... They're beautiful James, thank you."

James followed her in to her room and watched as she arranged the flowers in a vase. She turned back to find him staring at her with a goofy smile on his face again.

"What is it? Is there something on my face?" Lily raised a hand to check and James reached over to hold it.

"Of course not, there could never be anything wrong with your face."

"Then why do you have that look on your face?"

"Because I am so happy to see you Lily."

Lily smiled shyly up at him. "You are?"

James replied with a kiss.

…

"James has been gone awhile," smirked Sirius.

Peter nodded, "A very long while."

Remus glared at the other two, "I very much doubt that there is anything going on up there."

"Maybe we should go and check, just to make sure that everything is above board."

"Sirius, I swear, if you leave this room I will hex you into oblivion."

"You would not do that to me Remus."

"Hmm, maybe not. But Lily will, or are you forgetting that time you decided to surprise her with a shower in the middle of the night?"

"I was saving her time so she did not have to have one in the morning!"

"A shower of mud? How is that saving her time?"

"I got the spell a little wrong! You cannot blame me for that!"

"Mud that left her skin green and her hair pink?"

"The green matched her eyes! It was an improvement!"

Remus sighed, "I do not care what your excuse is Sirius, just do not go and bother them now. And do not think about sending Peter to go instead."

"I would never-"

Sirius was interrupted by a knock at the door. Peter went to open it and they were all surprised to see King Harold and Albus Dumbledore standing there. "I hope we are not disturbing anything, but we wanted to talk to you."

"If this is another lecture on how stupid we are, I pass." Sirius stood up and went to leave but found his way blocked by a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans.

"Would you like one? I believe I have cleared out the worst flavoured ones, I always manage to get those. I was delighted to find out that they make a bean that is flavoured like the back end of a horse. I had wondered what that tasted like. It is good to learn something new everyday," smiled Dumbledore.

"Uh, no thanks Professor, I think I will be fine," Sirius said as he backed away slowly.

"You do not have to call me Professor any more Sirius since I am no longer your teacher."

"Uh, alright then, umm... Dumbledore?"

"Albus will do I am sure."

"Uh, right."

"I hate to interrupt, but we do have something important to ask you," said King Harold. "I am sure you are aware of the situation that is developing. Lucious Malfoy has allied himself to this Dark Lord, as well as a number of other highly influential families. They are rumoured to be amassing an army of many dark creatures. We are trying to negotiate, but some of us," he looked at Dumbledore, "do not believe that this will be successful."

Dumbledore stepped forward, "I am looking to form a small band of capable wizards that will form a secret organisation to work against this threat. We do not want to declare outright war until we have to, but we cannot stand back and do nothing."

"We would be glad to help however we can," Sirius beamed.

King Harold looked at him sternly, "We are not rushing into anything Sirius, this will be very dangerous. You cannot be foolhardy about this."

"Serious is my middle name, well, it would be if my first name was not..."

Remus clapped a hand over Sirius' mouth, "I do apologise about Sirius, I had thought that we had broken him out of that habit. Of course, we will consider this thoroughly, we will not be reckless about it."

"Then that is all that we can ask of you. Thank you, all of you. We will discuss this again in a few days. Oh, and please remember that this is a matter of the utmost secrecy, we do not want to compromise anything before it has even started!" said Dumbledore with a twinkle.

Remus, Sirius and Peter all exchanged looks as King Harold and Dumbledore left the room.

Remus sighed, "Well, that was interesting."


	18. Chapter 18

**A huge thanks again to Jannice Sace for the review, here is another update for you! Thanks also to Lindzo1989 for adding my story to their alerts list. Now, back to the study...Enjoy!**

...

James bounced into the room for breakfast the next morning. Everyone stopped eating and stared at him.

"What? Why are you all looking at me?" he asked.

Sirius grinned slyly, "Oh, no reason. We just have not seen you for awhile."

"A very long while," added Peter.

"One cannot help but wonder what could have been taking up all of your time?"

"Or rather, who has been taking up all your time?"

"Ah, good point Peter. That then leads me to ponder exactly what may have been happening for all that time?"

"Yes, that is a very puzzling thought."

"Would you two stop it! Nothing happened!" James sat down quickly and filled up his plate, hoping that the others would ignore the redness of his cheeks.

"Look at that Sirius, I think I see a blush."

"I agree wholeheartedly Peter, that is most definitely a blush."

"And a most defensive answer too."

"Yes, yes, a very defensive answer to our harmless inquires."

James ignored the two of them as they continued in this manner. When he looked up to ask for a drink, he caught his mother's eye. It was twinkling.

"Mother, do not listen to them. I swear nothing happened. I just fell asleep with Lily..."

He was interrupted by a loud cacophony of laughs, jeers and calls of "I knew it!".

"Not like that! Argh, you are all have the minds of fifteen year olds."

"Darling, sit down, we are just glad to see you so happy, that is worth a little teasing, is it not?" asked the Queen.

"Hmph," James said as he sat. He stuffed all his food into his mouth, filled another plate and stood up to leave.

"Where are you going with that?" Sirius asked innocently.

"Lily asked if I could bring her some breakfast in bed this morning."

As another chorus of laughs broke out, James stormed from the room, his ears a very deep shade of red.

…

"Thank you James, that was lovely," Lily said.

"I hope you appreciate all the suffering that went into procuring it for you."

"Oh, you poor little man, I promise you I am most grateful for your hardships."

"I am not little! I assure you that I am quite well endowed-"

"Yes, thank you James, I am sure you are."

"Hmph, you are as bad as the rest of them at breakfast."

"Awh, how about I make it up to you with a stroll around the gardens, it is a beautiful day today."

"All the more beautiful for you."

Lily gave him a light shack on the shoulder. "Stop that you. Come on, I need to stretch my legs."

James grinned. "You know, if Sirius was here he would say... Ouch!"

"Would he? How peculiar."

"You hit me! Why did you do that?!"

Lily grabbed his hand and towed him from the room as he continued to mutter about how mean everyone was today.

…

"It is good to see that she is up and about again," said Dumbledore.

"Yes, I am glad that it seems to have all worked out," replied King Harold, "But do you really think that she should be a part of this group? How can we be sure that she is not a spy?"

"Rest assured, I checked her thoroughly while Poppy was healing her. I very highly doubt that she would willingly spy for them either."

"Hmm, very well. If that is the case, I do not think that it would be good for her to join though, not after what she has been through."

"Give Lily some credit, she is a strong girl. Yes, she will always have some scars, but they will hopefully fade. And do not forget, she is a highly accomplished witch, we could use someone of her talents."

"That is true, however, they know now that they can use her against James. If she was abducted again, he would go running into whatever trap they had set up."

"All the more reason to have her involved. She will be another level head for those boys, Remus cannot manage all of them. They will be safer with her around."

"If that is what you advise, then of course I will agree. But that will not stop me hoping that she will reject the offer."

Dumbledore smiled, "I think you will be hoping for a long time then."

…

The dark haired man ground his teeth as he watched her laughing and giggling her way through the gardens.

"Be calm Severus. I promised you that you would have her and Lord Voldemort rewards those who are faithful to him."

"I had her! And then those idiotic monkeys took her! How is she laughing with him? I did everything I could to turn her against him and look! If anything, she loves him even more now!"

"Patience Severus, this could be worked in our favour. They know about us now, so they will be looking to oppose us. It should not be too hard to get both the kingdom and the girl from them."

Severus looked over at the Dark Lord. "What do you need me to do, my Lord?"


	19. Chapter 19

**Another update for you all, a bit longer this time too. A great big thankyou to Jannice Sace for the review again, they give me a lot of motivation to keep writing, so thankyou so much! I hope you all enjoy!**

...

Lily spent the next week adjusting to life back in the palace. While James was with her most of the time during the day, it was the nights she came to dread the most. Except for that night with James, the dark brought back memories that she would rather forget. She had been tempted several times to go and join James in his bed, but she did not want to burden him with her troubles.

At least the daylight hours were enjoyable, spending time with James and his friends was never boring. The five of them had also started training with Alastor Moody. It had been interesting, even with an intimidating Moody who would quite often jump out from under the table during dinner and try to hex them, all the while shouting "Constant vigilance!".

Lily was now nervously waiting to enter the ballroom. Her long awaited Engagement Ball was tonight and Lily felt like she was going to be sick.

"Relax, it will be fine," said James reassuringly. He pulled her into a hug.

"I just cannot stop thinking about what happened before."

"I will be right by your side the whole time, nothing will happen to you, I promise."

"Thanks James," Lily gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and squared her shoulders, "Lets do this then."

James smiled and escorted her through the doors. Lily was left speechless as she gazed upon the room. It was stunning. Flowers filled the room, flowing from every surface and petals dropped from the ceiling only to disappear into sparkles above the tables. Everything glittered and rainbows bounced around the room.

"Do you like it?" murmured James, "It took us awhile to get some of the spells right. Sirius was hoping we could catch some leprechauns and have gold coming down instead of flowers, luckily Remus talked him out of that."

"Oh, I can imagine what that conversation would have been like!"

James gave a short bow, "Would you care for a dance?"

"I would love to."

…

"I think we did a good job on the room, Lily looks happy."

"Sirius, really, I do not think that the room is why she is happy, she is dancing with James."

"Well, yes, that too I suppose, but I am sure that the majority of her happiness is because she loves what we did with the place."

Remus sighed, "Whatever keeps you happy Sirius."

"I shall go and prove it then, if you do not believe me."

"No, wait, Sirius!" called Remus, but he was too late to stop him from interrupting the happy couple.

"May I have a dance, lovely lady?" asked Sirius with a glamorous bow.

James growled at him, "Excuse me Sirius, but I am trying to enjoy a dance with my wife-to-be and I do not think she wants to dance with you."

Lily laughed, "Calm down James, one dance with him will be fine."

"Come on mate, you have forever to dance with her!"

"Fine," scowled James, "but do not get up to anything Sirius, I will be watching you."

Sirius grinned at Lily as he twirled her around. "Do you like the room?"

"Very much, it is wonderful."

"Hah! I told Remus that that was why you are happy!"

"Did you just come and dance with me just to prove to Remus that you were right?"

"Of course not! I also did it so that I could annoy James, he has been spending so much time with you lately that I have not had much of a chance to stir him up."

"Then I believe you have succeeded in your mission, James is probably furious with you now."

"Oh, undoubtedly!"

Lily laughed again as they finished the dance.

"Thank you kind lady, but I must away before your husband-to-be destroys my beautiful face."

"We would not want that."

"No, there would have to be a national day of mourning, the loss of my face would indeed be a tragedy for all the women in the world. Speaking of women, I should go and see if I can find one who is a little more available than you."

"That would be an excellent idea, mate," said James.

Sirius kissed Lily's hand and vanished back into the crowd. Lily looked at James, "Behave, he only wanted to know it I liked the room."

"And do you like the room?"

"Of course I do!"

"Well, I suppose that is alright then."

After they had been dancing for awhile, James suddenly led Lily over to a seat next to Queen Helen.

"What are you doing James? I did not think you would tire of dancing so quickly," said Lily.

"I just remembered something, I will be back soon. I thought it would be best if you stayed over here near my mother, she should be able to divert any more of Sirius' attempts at dancing with you." With that, James vanished into the crowd.

Queen Helen leaned over towards her, "Enjoying yourself dear?"

"Very much. I do think James is being a little overprotective though, Sirius seems to have gone off with a lady friend, I cannot see him anywhere. Actually, I cannot see any of those boys around."

"Hmm, I think we should prepare ourselves for a surprise then. I did know they were planning something, but I thought it was just what they added to the room."

"Any idea what kind of surprise this will be?"

"None whatsoever I am afraid, I do hope it will not be one of their messy ones, it is such a bother trying to get slime stains out of a silk dress."

Lily and Queen Helen chattered some more about the past 'surprises' that they had been witness to. They were so busy talking that they did not see the rat that slipped out from under the table and ran to the door.

…

"What did you hear Peter?"

"Lily noticed that we were all gone and when I left them they were speculating on what kind of surprise we would be planning."

All four of them were huddled together in one of the side chambers off the ballroom. Sirius leaned forward and tapped the ground with his wand absentmindedly. "Alright, so they know that we are planning something, but they do not know what. That should not change anything, it was always a given that we would do something spectacular tonight."

"I agree, the plan should not need any modifications. Did they say anything else Peter?" asked Remus.

"Queen Helen mentioned that she was hoping it would not be slime, I think that was all though."

"What? I would never spoil this for Lily by involving slime, what kind of person do they think I am?" said James.

"Relax, I am sure they know that it will not be too damaging."

"Fine, well then, should we get to work?"

They all nodded agreement.

…

King Harold had just whisked his wife away for a dance when Lily noticed that the petals had stopped falling. As she looked up at the ceiling, she saw that the ceiling was no longer there. Instead, she could see the night sky above them. Slowly, everyone in the room stopped dancing and stared upwards in amazement. There was some muttering as people began to work out exactly what was going on. While everyone was looking upwards, a mist began to spread through the room. It rose up and soon it had engulfed the entire room. Little lights began to flicker throughout the mist and with a whoosh, the mist vanished and a thousand tiny rockets had flown up into the sky. They exploded into a thousand more little lights and rearranged themselves into writing that said: 'James loves Lily'. The lights dissolved back into a glittering mist that descended down. Everyone applauded as the ceiling reappeared and the petals began to fall once more.

Lily jumped as someone whispered in her ear, "Did you like it?"

"That was amazing James, how did you do it?"

"Ah, if I told you that, I would have to kill you. We Marauders never reveal our secrets."

With a laugh, Lily pulled him back onto the dance floor.

…

"If you keep grinding your teeth, you will have nothing left Snape."

"Go away Bellatrix, I am not in the mood for your annoying ramblings."

"Ooh, little mister grumpy pants. At least I am not the one who cannot stop spying on a girl who has obviously moved on."

"She is mine. She will realise that some day. Flashy shows are not a guarantee on anything."

"Actually, that was some impressive magic. Maybe that is why she loves him and hates you, her man is quite the master of a wand."

Snape lunged at Bellatrix who stepped lightly to the side. She laughed at him as he came at her again. "Careful Snape, we would not want you to get in trouble now, not when our Lord is working so hard to reward you."

With a muttered curse, Snape flicked his wand at Bellatrix. She stumbled back with a muffled shriek as her tongue rolled up in her mouth.

"Careful Bellatrix, you never know if the person you are irritating is more 'masterful' with a wand than you."

She glared at him in reply and stormed off. Snape smirked and went back to watching the girl of his dreams as she danced.


	20. Chapter 20

**Only a short update today, I'll try and update quicker since it's so small. Thanks to SailorPetal for adding my story to their alert list and an enormous thankyou and a pile of cookies to my fantastic reviewer, Jannice Sace. I'm glad you like Bellatrix (I think it will be quite fun to write about her later on) and since I had to give James and Lily some happy time, I hope this makes up for the lack of a fight at the ball! Enjoy!**

...

Lily collapsed onto her bed, exhausted. She had spent all night dancing with James and his friends, who decided to interrupt whenever James started to look too happy. Peter had insisted that it was only payback for all the whining they had heard from James over the years. When James had protested that princes did not whine, which resulted in everyone nearby collapsing into hysterics, he had gone off to sulk until Lily coaxed him back out. "Not that it was hard to convince James to stop sulking, that man bounces back from everything," she thought.

Just as she was dozing off, a bright light filled the room. Lily sat up quickly and grabbed her wand. She was just thinking that Moody had gone a little far by attacking her in her room when she saw Severus' face in the light.

"What are you doing here?" she screeched. She raised her wand and was about to hex him when he called out to her.

"Wait Lily, I just wanted to talk to you!"

"I do not want to talk to you, get out of here!"

"Lily, please, I wanted to apologise!"

She paused. "Is this another trick?"

"No, of course not!"

"Fine. Apology not accepted. Now, go away!"

"Lily, please, I am begging you, I just wanted to talk to you."

"And I told you, I do not want to hear a thing you have to say."

"I am sorry Lily, I was just trying to make you love me."

"Why Severus? You had my love once and you lost it."

"So you admit you loved me!"

"We have been through this before Severus, I loved you like a brother. My best friend." Lily shook her head in sorrow.

"Why should that have changed Lily?"

"You know very well why! You made your choices Snape, now you have to live with them."

Snape looked at her in shock. "Lily, you do not believe that do you. Your lovely Prince told you all those things about me, I never would have betrayed you."

"Stop trying to brainwash me Snape. Are you saying that you did not kidnap me and torture me for a year? If so, you should just give up now."

"I am trying to apologise for that! _He _made me do it, I did not want to!"

"I was there! I heard the two of you, you made me listen!"

"It was a spell Lily, half of what you think happened did not."

Lily turned on her heel and stormed over to her dresser. She picked up the mirror that James had given her and breathed on it. "James, I need you here, now."

"What are you doing? If you get him, he will just put you under a spell again."

Lily glared at him, "I will give you one last chance, get out of here now before James comes."

"Or what? You would not let him hurt me, you love me."

"How many times do I have to say it, no I do not! Now, go!"

"You do love me, why else are you trying to get me to leave so that I do not get hurt by your charming Prince."

Lily screamed in frustration and James burst into the room. Snape smirked at him and vanished. James cursed and turned to Lily. "Are you alright? Did he hurt you?"

Lily couldn't stop the tears that fell. She leaned against his chest and hid her face as James wrapped his arms around her reassuringly.


	21. Chapter 21

**Update! Only slightly longer, but it felt like a good place to stop. A million thanks to my amazing reviewers, Jannice Sace and Mrs. Grint-Cozart-Felton-Horan, I hope you enjoy the update! The weekend is almost here so I will try to update quickly for you then, enjoy!**

…

Lily sat with James as she watched her room fill up with people. Moody was muttering away to Dumbledore, who was watching various of Moody's underlings as they examined the room. King Harold entered the room and strode over to Dumbledore and Moody. "How could this have happened? I thought that this entire castle had been protected from exactly this kind of thing!"

"It has, but the spell that was used was most ingenious," explained Dumbledore. "It seems to have been a modification of an observation spell."

"An observation spell?"

"Yes, once that spell was working, all he had to do was change it slightly to allow him to project his image instead."

James stood up, "So, are you saying that he has been watching Lily?"

Dumbledore looked grave, "That is how it appears."

"What else has he seen then? Do they know about our training?"

Moody looked around at James, "I very much doubt that, I always put up the strongest protections I can think of."

"So he has just been watching me then," Lily said.

"Yes, though we know what spell has been used now so we can block him from trying anything like that again," said Moody.

Lily shivered, "He was trying to convince me that this was all a trick, that everything was all a trick."

Dumbledore bent down slightly to look her in the eye, "If you like, I can help you learn Occlumency."

James looked confused, "I thought that was to stop people getting into your thoughts."

"Yes, it does. By blocking off your mind, you know that no one can meddle with your thoughts either."

"Is that what he was trying to do?" asked Lily, "He was trying to change my memories?"

Dumbledore nodded, "It appears so, there is a residue here of such a spell."

"Then I will learn Occlumency, I do not want him to succeed next time"

"There will not be a next time," said James. He glared at Moody, "Or there better not be a next time."

"Do not threaten me, boy, I do not take orders from you yet. But there will not be a next time, you can be assured of that."

James nodded and turned back to Lily, "We should probably leave you to get some sleep."

Everyone left the room except James. "Do you want me to stay?" he asked.

Lily smiled at him and nodded. James smiled in reply.

…

"That was a foolish thing to do Severus."

Snape held his head in his hands, "I have to have her, she is driving me to distraction."

"However, you cannot even watch her now. Dumbledore and his lackeys have sealed up that little hole now."

Snape groaned. Lord Voldemort smiled evily, "In that case, I suppose we shall have to move our plans forward a little. I cannot have my right hand man so distracted, not when we have some battles to win." He left the room, laughing to himself.

Snape slumped on the table. He couldn't stop thinking about Lily, he needed her so badly.

"You are the lucky one," he heard someone say mockingly, "anyone else would be told to stop moping and get on with it, but our Lord is so very eager to see that you are happy." Bellatrix came and sat on the table beside Snape. "I wonder why that is?"

"Go away."

"That is not very polite Snape dear. I am trying to be friendly."

"No, you are trying to find away to usurp me from my place."

She giggled, "Oh, you caught me. I am just trying to understand why the Dark Lord is so interested in a worthless half-blood like you."

"Because he is not interested in a disgusting whore like you."

Bellatrix went to slap him but found herself unable to move. Lord Voldemort glided over towards her, not looking happy. "My dear Bella, what are you doing? I do so hope you are not questioning my plans."

"No, of course not, no my Lord..."

"Because Lord Voldemort does not appreciate having his plans questioned. And I am sure you know what happens to people that question my doings."

Bellatrix blanched. Before she could speak, Voldemort raised his wand and inspected it. "Now Bella, Severus here has my full trust and he has done me tremendous service over the years. I hate to see someone so faithful so miserable and I shall do everything I can to remedy that. When Severus is happy, he comes up with the most delicious ideas for our enemys, I do so enjoy that." He released Bellatrix from his spell and she stumbled into a bow. Lord Voldemort smirked, "I hope you will go to all the other doubters and tell them what I said. Lord Voldemort does not like to repeat himself."

Bellatrix left the room quickly. Snape looked at his master, "Thank you my Lord."

"It was nothing Severus, I only ask that you turn some of your anger towards getting your little lady back."

Snape nodded grimly. Voldemort smiled and glided out of the room once more.


	22. Chapter 22

**Update! I found this one quite hard to write, I apologise if it's a bit awkward in it's flow. I'm still deciding on how far to take this and, more importantly, what kind of ending it will have. I'm torn between keeping it canonish or going for a full AU and writing a happy ending (which I am leaning towards as I am a sucker for a happy ending). Any suggestions would be most appreciated! A great big thankyou to my lovely reviewer, Jannice Sace, I'm planning on having a little bit more to the whole Voldemort wanting to keep Snape happy thing, so hopefully it should get more interesting! Thankyou so much for reviewing, your reviews make my day and keep me writing, so thankyou so much! Enjoy!**

…

A month later, Lily was exhausted. She spent her time either training with Moody and his other recruits or wedding planning with Queen Helen. Her nights were spent with James and his friends, except for those nights that Moody decided to spring a surprise training session on them.

Lily watched as Sirius demonstrated how well he had trained Peter to catch lollies with his mouth. She laughed as Peter did a forward roll before catching the lolly. James just groaned from his position in the corner.

"Quit moaning James," said Sirius.

"It is not my fault that Occlumency is so bloody hard."

Moody had decided that it would be a good idea for everyone to learn Occlumency. James was terrible at it and this made him cranky, both from the headache it caused and the fact that James couldn't cope with being bad at something. James had taken to sitting and clutching his head, groaning, in the evenings after their lessons.

The clock tower struck the hour and they all stood up with a sigh. After one night when they had stayed up all night talking and then fell asleep during training the next day, Moody had been quite strict on what time they had to all go to bed by. Sirius had been the one to discover what would happen if they broke that rule when he got up to have a midnight snack and returned to find that his bed had vanished. When he showed up for training the next morning bleary eyed, Moody ensured that he did not have one moment to rest for the whole day.

Lily said goodnight to the others and headed back to her room. This was the time that she dreaded the most. Ever since Snape had been there, she had been plagued by nightmares. Lily often woke up trying to scream but she knew that if she did, she would have to tell James. She didn't think that she could, especially since he had featured in the last few nightmares. In the daylight hours she knew that it hadn't been James that hurt her, it was in the dark that she struggled to remember who it was that had done those things.

Lily found herself avoiding her bed, she couldn't face another night of the nightmares. Instead, she decided to take a walk to the library, hopefully if she was in a different place she might be able to avoid the demons that followed her. "And it does not matter if Moody takes my bed away, it is not like I want to sleep in it anyway," she thought.

The library was deserted at this time of night. Lily padded softly over to the comfy chairs near the fireplace. After starting a roaring fire, she settled down in one of the chairs to read one of the books that had been left on the table. She hadn't gotten far into it when she noticed someone else sit down in the chair across from her. She looked up into a pair of twinkling blue eyes.

"It is a little late for you to be reading about the joys of charms Miss Evans."

Lily shrugged a little, "I would have thought that it would never be too late to read about charms Professor."

Dumbledore smiled, "I would normally encourage such reading, but I do know that Alastor will be most upset if he found out that more of his pupils were disregarding him."

"I am not disregarding him, I just ... could not sleep."

"Could not sleep?" he asked, his eyes boring into hers.

"Well, did not want to sleep, I suppose."

Dumbledore nodded, "That is understandable, you have had quite an intense year."

Lily shrugged again, "I was fine, until..."

"If it is any consolation, Severus' appearance may have started the bad dreams, however I believe they would have come anyway. You have had quite an ordeal and those memories may have been repressed for a time, but they would have come out sooner or later."

Lily hung her head, she could not reply to that.

"If I may enquire, why have you not told James?"

"I do not want him to worry about me, he is already so protective of me."

Dumbledore gave her a knowing look. Lily couldn't help but smile. "Alright, I know, most girls would love that. I just, well, I cannot tell him that some of the nightmares involve him. Well, not _him_ him but Severus when he was him. James already feels bad about what happened, I cannot add to that."

Dumbledore twiddled his thumbs and stared at the ceiling, "James is stronger than you think, I think he would be very supportive."

"I know he would be, but, well, what if he is not? I do not know what I would do if he… "

"The only way you will find out is if you talk to him."

"I know. I just do not think I could cope if he did not want me any more." Lily hung her head and let her hair fall over her face, hiding it from view.

"Lily, I could never stop wanting you."

Lily started as James came to kneel in front of her. Dumbledore stood up and smiled at them, eyes twinkling over his glasses, "I think I shall bid you both a goodnight, sleep well!"

James tucked Lily's hair behind her ear, "You did not have to suffer by yourself Lily, you could have told me."

Lily felt a tear escape from the corner of her eye, "I am sorry James, I did not want you to feel bad about... you know, what happened."

James smothered her in a hug, "I will always feel bad about that Lily, I betrayed you. But I swore when I got you back that I would never let that happen again. I love you Lily, nothing you do or say could ever change that."

"I love you too James, I never stopped loving you."

James smiled, "I think you could use some sleep, would you like me to come with you? Or would that not be helpful?"

"I think it would be very helpful, I always sleep better when you are around."

James stood up and stretched. "Lets just hope that Moody has not confiscated your bed then, I do not fancy sleeping on the floor tonight, even if it is with you!"

With a watery chuckle, Lily nodded and the pair left the library.

…

"You see Alastor? Lily can work past this, she just needed some help from James."

Moody grunted, "Fine, you win Albus. As long as she turns up in the morning bright and alert, that is all I care about. I need them at the top of their game, sleep deprivation will only put them at danger."

"Patience Alastor, you cannot say that you are not pleased with how they are all progressing."

"They are a talented bunch, but I would not go telling them that, those boys heads are swollen enough."

Dumbledore chuckled, "Yes, though I cannot help but wonder how much worse they would be if they did not have Remus around."

Moody grimaced, "Do not even suggest it Albus, I do not want to even consider that possibility. They would be impossible to handle then."

Still chuckling, Dumbledore bid Moody goodnight and they both headed back to bed.


	23. Chapter 23

**Yay, 20 000 words! Thanks to DariaDoll for adding this story to their favourites list and thankyou again to JanniceSace for the review! I was wondering if you would pick up on the fact that James materialised there, I wanted to add in some more Marauders things to the story, so I've answered that in this chapter. I'm glad you liked the chapter, here's an update for you! Enjoy!**

...

The sun streaming through the window woke Lily up. She yawned and stretched out her arms, accidentally hitting James in the head.

"Oww! If I had of known that sleeping with you would mean that I get abused in the morning, I think I would have thought twice about it."

"I am sorry, I forgot you were there." Lily looked at James who was grinning sheepishly at her, "Were you watching me sleep?"

"Only until someone viciously attacked me."

"That is slightly creepy."

"Is it? You looked so calm and beautiful, I could not help it."

Lily smiled. As she remembered the events of last night that had led them here, she frowned.

"What is wrong?" asked James.

"I just realised, how did you know where I was last night?"

James grinned cheekily, "Oh my love, I cannot tell you that, it is a Marauder's secret."

"James...," she said warningly, "you had better tell me right now or, so help me, I will hex you so much that you will not be able to sit down for a week."

"You would not do that, if I could not sit down, how would I be able to snuggle you at night?"

"I am sure I would survive for a week. Or you could just stand next to my bed all night." Lily frowned again, "Actually, that would probably be even more creepy than you watching me sleep."

"Exactly. So, I shall not tell you how I knew where you were as you do not have any substantial threat to make against me."

"Fine then, though, I am still curious, why did you follow me to the library?"

James looked at her seriously, "Lily, you must think that we are all unobservant fools. We all had noticed that you were not sleeping well, you have been looking tired for weeks."

"You never mentioned that."

"Well, we decided that it would be best if you told us about it first, I did not want to push you into anything."

Lily nodded, "Thank you. I am sorry I did not tell you sooner."

"Love, it is alright, I could guess why that was. And you do not need to worry about me, honestly, I would be surprised if you were not affected by what happened." James gave her a quick hug, "So, what about breakfast, I am starving!"

"You are always starving!" laughed Lily. James grinned and left her to get dressed. Lily quickly put on some presentable clothes and headed down to breakfast.

…

When James arrived, Sirius, Peter and Remus were already halfway through the mountains of food on their plates.

"Hey! Thanks a lot for waiting for me!"

Sirius waved his fork at James, "We figured we should eat now, since we did not know when you and a certain red haired young lady would be down."

Peter grinned slyly, "Yes, we thought you might be having a 'morning delight', as it were."

James glared at Peter and Remus gave both Sirius and Peter a whack to the back of their heads. "I thought we had agreed not to mention that," he said.

"No, you said that we should not say anything, I never actually said that I would not say anything." said Peter.

James sat down and piled food onto his own plate as the other three argued over exactly what they had agreed on."

"Enough! It does not matter now anyway!" said Remus.

Sirius grinned at him and then turned to James, "So, seriously, what did happen? Is she alright?"

"Yeah, she is fine mate, or as fine as she can be I suppose. I found her in the library talking with Dumbledore, she admitted that she had been having nightmares and we thought it would be best if she had some company at night."

Peter smiled and opened his mouth to say something cheeky. Remus glared at him until Peter filled his mouth with food. "So, no nightmares last night then?" Remus asked.

"A few," said James, "nothing too bad from the sounds of it. She did not mind that I was there, so I figured that had to be a good sign."

The three boys nodded in agreement. "Lily will be alright James, she just needs to be reminded that she does not have to suffer alone," said Sirius.

"Yes," agreed Remus, "but I have to say that I was more worried about how nervous she has become, she has been flinching at every shadow."

"That is to be expected, between Snape and then Moody jumping out at us all the time, she has the right to be a little jumpy," said Sirius.

Peter grunted and waved his hands. They looked at him and he pointed at their map. Lily was getting close to the dining room. Remus hastily stuffed the map into his pocket and the others tried to look as all their thoughts had been on their breakfast.

"Good morning boys," Lily greeted them. She stopped in the doorway and stared at them.

"What? What is it?" asked James through his mouthful of food.

Lily giggled and then bent over, laughing so hard that James feared that someone had hit her with a Tickling Charm.

"You, you should see yourselves," she choked out. The boys looked around at each other, cheeks bulging with food. It took awhile for Lily to calm down and explain to them why that was so funny. "You are all just sitting there, food shoved in your mouths, exactly the same thoughtless expression on your faces, I do not think I have ever seen something so funny!"

Sirius looked insulted, "The day that a man cannot enjoy his breakfast as he likes is the day the world comes to an end," he said, his mouth still full.

Lily just started laughing again.

…

"I have all the plans you wanted my Lord, I think we will be ready to begin as soon as you give the go ahead."

Voldemort smiled thinly, "Thank you Severus. In that case, we should begin at once."

Snape bowed and went to leave.

"Have you given any thought to how you shall get your lovely lady back Severus?"

Snape stopped and stiffened. "Yes my Lord, I have given it a lot of thought."

"And?"

"I think the easiest way will just be to capture her when we take the palace from them."

"Can you wait that long Severus?" enquired Voldemort.

Snape gritted his teeth. "No, but I cannot see how else to get her. She does not leave that place and if she did she would be under heavy guard. Not to mention all the damage she could do herself."

"Do not be so disheartened Severus. I believe that as soon as we begin our assault, that it will be more than easy to capture her during a battle."

"They would never let her fight, even if she is one of their most capable witches, they would be fools to allow her into a battle."

"Ah, my dear Severus, you know as well as I that Dumbledore will have been making plans of his own. I also know that that young Prince and his friends would be at the centre of those plans, Dumbledore would not let that talent go to waste. To say your lady is stubborn would be an understatement, so do you really think that she would not decide to join in with their plans?"

"Of course she would, but they would never let her! _He _would never let her, he is that protective of her!"

Voldemort smiled, "Ah, but that is what they expect us to think, I am sure that Dumbledore believes that allowing Lily to fight would distract you during the battle, he probably hopes that she would be able to use that to her advantage."

Snape glared at his master, "That will not happen."

"I am sure that that is the case Severus, I believe in being prepared for such eventualities however."

"If that idiot of a prince lets her out to fight then he will be sorry he did. I will make sure of that." Snape turned and stalked out of the room.

Lord Voldemort smiled at the departing back. Everything was going according to plan.


	24. Chapter 24

**I apologise for the really short update, I've been pretty sick today but I wanted to get at least something up tonight. A huge thanks to pikanette and lily1923 for adding this story to their favourites list. Also, thankyou so much to Jannice Sace for the review, yes, the palace is meant to be like Hogwarts, since it is such a home to everyone in the books I thought that I would continue that idea here. I was thinking of doing something like that with Snape, but I don't think he would ever be able to, I always thought that he wouldn't be that desperate. That's not to say that it won't happen though... Enjoy!**

...

A few days later, all of Moody's trainees were called to a meeting. When they arrived, they found the King and many of his highest officials waiting for them.

"What is going on?" asked James.

"It has begun. There was an attack on an outlying village last night. All of the non-magic users were killed, any of the villagers that could use magic are missing, we believe they have been captured for interrogation. To what end, I am unsure, but it appears that it is time for your training to be put to the test," said Dumbledore gravely.

One of the other trainees, Benjy Fenwick, spoke up, "What is our first mission?"

"We will send a few of you, undercover, to the site of the attack to find out what you can. The rest of you will wait on standby in case this team needs help or there is another attack," said Moody.

"As we do not want to draw attention to this group, we will first send the people that will raise the least suspicion." said King Harold. James realised what was happening and glared at him. The King sent him a warning glance before continuing, "Therefore, we have decided that Fabian and Gideon shall go, accompanied by Minerva." The trainees watched as Minerva McGonagall stepped out from the group of councillors. "Minerva will be able to keep us informed of what you find there."

Minerva nodded at the Prewetts who nodded back. They left the room together and Moody looked at the rest of the group. "You have the day off from training today, but keep be prepared to move at any time."

Everyone went to leave apart from James who was fuming. He walked up to his father, "May I have a word with you?"

King Harold nodded and the two of them left the room. Sirius gave a low whistle as they left. "Shall we draw straws to see who gets to deal with James after that little talk?"

Lily smiled, "Nope, he is all yours, you are his best friend after all."

"Hey! You are the one marrying him!"

"Yes, so I shall have a lifetime of dealing with his tantrums, I think you should have this one."

"No way! I have already dealt with all the last ones!"

"Please Sirius? As a favour to me?" pouted Lily.

"Ack, fine, but you will owe me for this Lily Evans."

"Deal." Lily gave him a peck on the cheek, "So, until then, what shall we do."

Remus spoke up, "I think we should get to practising our duelling, just in case."


	25. Chapter 25

**Update! A made it a little longer for you, since I missed yesterdays update. Once again, a huge thanks to Jannice Sace for the review. Yes, they do co-exist together, though I am not sure if it will still be happily since Voldemort's started his little 'I hate everyone' thing! I kind of imagine it as being before the wizards went into hiding, though in this case most of the lords and things have magic in their families. Non-magic folk aren't exploited or anything (not yet anyway!), I hope that answers your question! I kind of like your idea about Voldemort, I might have to do that... Hahah, no, I agree, that might be a little strange... Enjoy!**

...

When everyone had left, James turned to his father. Before he could do more than open his mouth, King Harold stopped him. "Just wait James, let me explain before you shout about how unfair I am."

James glared and gave a curt nod.

The King sighed, "I know that you wanted to go James, but this is for the best. We needed people that would be inconspicuous and unfortunately, you and your friends are not that."

James spluttered but King Harold held up a hand, "Of course, you will get the chance to see some action, probably more than you would like in the end. Do you really think that we would waste all that time training you lot just to keep you locked up here?"

"Really? You are not just keeping us here because I am your son or anything?" James said.

"No, I believe that it will be good for the people to see you out and fighting, but at this stage we are still keeping this all a secret. We do not want word getting out of exactly what our strengths, and weaknesses, are."

"Oh. I guess that is alright then."

King Harold looked at James suspiciously, "I thought that I would have more of an argument with you about this."

"Father, I am a grown man, I am not going to sulk because I did not get to go fight, that is, if you do intend to let us help at some point."

King Harold smiled, "I am proud of you James, you will make a good king one day."

James smiled and left the room. He stalked through the corridors until he found his friends. They jumped when the door slammed against the wall and James strode in. He flung himself down in a chair and fumed silently.

Sirius exchanged a look with the others before carefully asking, "How did it go James?"

"You know very well how it went!" snarled James, "He says that they will let us help, but that will never happen. Not while it is all a precious 'secret'."

"They will let us, you know that James. They know that if they do not, we will just go out anyway."

"Hah! Yeah, sure, they have probably spelled the whole castle so that we cannot get out!" James thumped the pillows in frustration.

Sirius sighed and gave up, there was no use arguing with James when he was like this. He looked over at Lily with a shake of his head and noticed that she was very pale. She looked back at him, eyes huge in fear, before she got up and left the room quickly. James did not notice her leave, he just kept glaring furiously out the window.

Remus went to get up but Sirius shook his head. He stood up instead and followed Lily out of the room. After checking the map, he saw that she was up on top of one of the tall towers. As he climbed up, he heard Lily's sobs echoing down the staircase. She was curled up against the balcony, Sirius could saw her shoulders shake as the cold breeze twined around them.

"Lily?" he called softly.

She jumped, startled. Sirius approached her slowly and sat down across from her. She flinched a little before hiding her face in her arms.

"Do you want to talk Lils?" asked Sirius. He heard a muffled sound come from the hunched girl and gave a soft laugh. "I cannot hear you like that love."

Lily raised her head and gave a small smile, "Sorry, I.. I do not know, I just..."

"It is alright, you do not need to explain, I understand. He has not been angry in front of you has he?"

Lily shook her head, "Not since... I mean, I have seen him angry before, but that was before everything happened."

Sirius reached out slowly and patted her arm. "Good thing it was my turn to deal with him then."

Lily gave a watery chuckle, "I am sorry about that too, I forgot how stubborn he could be."

"Do not worry yourself love, I am used to it after all this time. I did not think about how it might affect you though."

"Neither did I. I mean, I feel so much better when he is around, you know? When he is happy, I can pretend like nothing happened, that Snape never..." Lily hid her face again as sobs choked through her. Sirius shuffled over and put his cloak around her shoulders. He didn't know how long they sat there until he noticed that Lily had fallen asleep. He gently levitated her up and took her back to her room.

…

When Sirius returned to their meeting room, James was pacing around the room like a caged lion.

"Where have you been?" he demanded.

Sirius was not in the mood to be pushed around by his best friend. "I have been looking after Lily, since it appears that you are too insensitive to do even that."

"Watch it Black, I am not in the mood for your nonsense."

Sirius barked out a harsh laugh, "_My _nonsense? What about yours? Or is it that because you are a Prince, you are the only one that is allowed to be in a bad mood?"

James snarled at Sirius, "What the hell is your problem?"

"No James, what is _your _problem? Here you are, sulking like a toddler who did not get a sweet. You cannot even be bothered to pay attention to how _your_ temper tantrums affect the people around you."

James gaped at Sirius. He was about to shout at him again until he noticed the dark look on Sirius' face. He took a step back and asked, "What is it? What happened?"

Sirius glared at James. "You."

"Me? What did I do?"

Sirius snorted, "Oh, nothing important obviously. That you cannot even look around and see for yourself is really amazing."

"Would you stop being so cryptic and just tell me what is going on?" James asked, exasperated.

"I already did! You were just too caught up in your own little drama to pay any attention."

"Sirius, please, stop trying to pick a fight and just tell me what it was that I did."

"Look around mate, look who is missing."

James looked and then went white, "Lily," he whispered.

"Exactly. You did not stop to think what kind of affect your little outburst would have on her did you?"

James hung his head, "Sirius, I am so sorry, I did not think..."

"It is not me that you have to apologise to mate."

"Where is she?"

"I do not think now would be the best time James," said Sirius gently. "She is asleep and I think it would be best if you let her come to you first."

"Alright, I suppose that is for the best." James sighed and went back to sit on his chair. "What have I done?"

His friends looked at him sympathetically and shook their heads.


	26. Chapter 26

**Sorry, I couldn't resist leaving it here on a little cliffhanger... I will probably update later tonight though since it is so short. A huge thankyou to Jannice Sace for the review again, I agree, I did feel really sorry for Snape after the seventh book, that is what gave me the idea for this story, what if Snape took the other path and would stop at nothing to get Lily? And I don't think Voldemort will stop at anything either... I hope you enjoy!**

...

_"I said, get up whore." He kicked her again. _

_Lily felt the necklace take hold, she had to get up or else. "That is not James, it has to be Snape." she told herself. She got to her feet, only to be knocked down again. She looked across into the other cell. She could see Remus, Sirius and Peter, looking on with horrified expressions, but no James. "It is a trick, it has to be." she repeated to herself as James hit her again and again. _

_James smirked at her as he lifted her up to his level. "So this is the reception I get, I mourned you for a year and then I find out that you have been with Snape all this time. How could you do that to me Lily." He threw her across the room, into the wall. _

_"You think that I am just Snape? That it is all a trick?" he laughed. _

Lily woke up with a scream. She jumped out of bed and ran to her balcony, half hanging over it as she gulped in the cool air. When she had calmed down somewhat, she looked out over the palace gardens and shuddered. If this happened after every time that James got angry, she did not know what to do. How could she stay here? She would just be reminded all the time of what could have been if Snape had never ruined everything. Lily sighed and went back inside. She grabbed her cloak and left the room. She needed to go for a walk.

…

Breakfast in the morning was a subdued affair. James barely ate anything, he felt too guilty about what had happened. Sirius was still slightly cranky at him and James knew that that would be the case until he apologised to Lily. It was getting close to the end of breakfast and Lily still had not arrived. James was starting to get worried. He turned to Sirius and opened his mouth, but Sirius already had the map out before he could speak. The other man was looking just as worried as James felt, his face grew more worried as he frantically scanned the map.

"What is it Sirius? What is wrong?" asked James.

"She is not on here."

James knocked over his chair in his rush to stand up. He hurried over to Sirius and looked for himself. Sirius was right, Lily was not anywhere to be found.

"Calm down James, I am sure there is a reasonable explanation for this," said Remus.

"How can I calm down Remus? Lily is missing and it is all my fault and what about if Snape has her again, I have let her down again..." James began to hyperventilate.

While James was being forced to sit down and breath by his friends, Dumbledore entered the room. James sprang back up and almost ran over to the old man.

"Dumbledore! Lily has gone! I do not know where, she is missing!"

Dumbledore held up a hand, "Yes, I know," he said gravely.


	27. Chapter 27

**Thanks again to Jannice Sace for the very quick review, here is an update for you! I hope it makes up for me leaving it on the cliffhanger before! Oh, and just a quick note, I have decided that Remus will be an Animagus in this story too (as a wolf of course!). I figured it would be a better as I didn't know until this chapter that I was going to make them all Animagi and it is a little late to suddenly go 'Hey, Remus is a werewolf'! Enjoy!**

…

_Earlier that morning..._

Lily went to walk out of the palace, but found herself unable to even open the door. After much cursing and several unsuccessful unlocking spells, she gave up.

"Chocolate frog?" said someone behind her.

Lily started and jumped around. Dumbledore was standing there, holding out a paper bag.

"No thanks sir, I am not hungry."

He nodded, "Very well then Miss Evans. May I ask what you are doing wandering around at this hour?"

"I needed to go for a walk, outside."

Dumbledore looked at her sympathetically, "If you would like, I could use your services. It would involve leaving the palace for a short time."

Lily looked up eagerly, "A mission? Are you letting me go on a mission?"

Dumbledore smiled, "Yes. I think you would be well suited to it."

…

"Are you saying, you let Lily go out by herself to go and fight against those people?" James roared.

Dumbledore gave him a hard look, "She is not alone Prince James, she is part of a team that will be running surveillance on the outer villages. It is necessary work."

"Then why did you not send us? Lily cannot be out there, what if something happens to her?"

"Nothing will happen. She is a very capable witch and I believe that she will be most beneficial to our war."

"What about us? You send Lily out to be killed or captured and yet we are stuck in this bloody castle!"

"Lily can look after herself and I believe that this will be exactly what she needs to heal."

"How have you worked that one out, huh? How is she going to heal when she is being attacked by the same people that hurt her before?"

"Lily agreed that this could help her, she was willing to try at least. If she finds that it only makes things worse, then she will stop at once."

James ground his teeth. Sirius interrupted James before he could argue some more. "Sir, I would like to know why we have not been allowed to go on a mission ourselves."

"You will be going on the next mission. We think that this mission is the best suited to your, unique, talents."

"What talents are you referring to?"

Dumbledore chuckled, "I am referring to your abilities as Animagi."

All four boys looked shocked. They had never told anyone that they had succeeded in becoming Animagi.

"How did you know about that?" asked Sirius.

"I have my ways," said Dumbledore, eyes twinkling, "So, I take it that you all would be willing to help us out in that way?"

The boys grinned at each other and nodded.

…

A week later, Sirius was not as enthusiastic as he had been about this mission. Sure, he got to run around as a dog most of the time, but all he had done was hide in the forest and get burrs in his coat. Sirius was starting to get bored and there was nothing worse than a bored Sirius. He thumped his tail as he waited for the others to meet him. All four had been asked to run patrols along the borders of the kingdom so that if any attacks came, they could notify Moody who could organise fighters to come and join the battle. So far, the Dark Lord had been pretty quiet. After a few attacks on some villages, there had been nothing for several days.

James trotted up in his stag form, Peter was perched on his antlers looking as pathetic as a rat could manage. Remus came running up as a wolf. They all transformed back into their regular shapes and after much scuffling (when Peter forgot to get off James to transform and so ended up sitting on top of an angry James) they settled down to discuss their next move.

"I think we should head west, that way we can keep an eye on that part of the forest." said James.

Sirius rolled his eyes, "You just want to go that way because Lily is there."

"Yes, and that is also where all the fighting has been so far."

"Exactly, that is why we should stay where we are or go east, in case he tries to come at us from a different side."

"I think Sirius is right," said Remus, "Lily and her group have got things under control, they had no losses at all in the last fight. We need to make sure that we do not get distracted by what they are doing."

James sighed, "Fine, I can see that I am going to be outvoted again."

Peter nodded, "Yes, yes you are."

As they stood up to shape-shift again, a Patronus in the shape of a doe came soaring towards them. James jumped up. "Lily?" he called, "What happened?"

"James, come quick, big attack, need your help," came Lily's voice from the doe. It vanished as they all Apparated away.


	28. Chapter 28

**A longer update for you all tonight, I'm sorry, I am rather shocking at writing fight scenes, any tips on improving that would be appreciated! This chapter is for Jannice Sace, I was going to draw things out a little more but I thought I would go with your idea... I hope you like it! You're not a bad person, I was kind of curious to see what happens too! And you can't have a story without something happening so, here we go! I'm glad you like the Remus thing, even though this is an AU story I didn't want to go too psycho with the changes as people don't usually like them. And yes, I thought it would be best to make them the original Order members. Some of them are advisors and such and some of them are other kids from the palace that they grew up with or are related to in some strange pure-blood way that I didn't really feel like trying to work out in the story (I thought it would just detract from the story too much). Ok, I think I have rambled enough, I hope you enjoy!**

...

When they arrived, chaos reigned. They immediately joined in, hexing all the figures that they could see that were wearing cloaks and masks. Sirius grinned at James, "Nice of them to make it so easy to identify who the enemy is!"

James grinned back before Stunning a man that went running up to him. He looked around for Lily, but could not see her. He focused on hexing another man who was about to curse one of the fighters, who turned out to be Dorcas Meadowes. She threw him a relieved smile before finding another opponent. James noticed that the attackers were starting to back off. After a few more minutes of intense fighting, those that were able to disappeared. James and the others wasted no time in restraining those that had been left behind. As they finished cleaning up, James looked for Lily again, she was no where to be found.

"Dorcas? Where is Lily?" he asked frantically.

"Relax, she went to warn Moody and Dumbledore about the attack."

"Oh, that is alright then."

"If I may ask, how did you guys know to come here?"

"Lily sent us a Patronus."

"Ah, that explains it. Here I was thinking that you lot had just popped in and saved the day accidentally!"

Sirius draped an arm around her shoulders, "My darling Dorcas, nothing that we do is accidental!"

Laughing, Dorcas shrugged him off and went off to help Alice Longbottom heal some of the injuries their side had sustained. James saw that Peter was over with the wounded but before he could go to him, Sirius pointed to something behind James. He turned around to see Dumbledore approaching them, Moody by his side.

"Are you lot thick or something?" roared Moody. "Or are you all too hyped up under your own egos that you decided to dive right in and handle it by yourself!"

James looked at Sirius and Remus, puzzled. "I do not mean to offend you, but what are you talking about?"

Moody glowered at them as Dumbledore looked stern. "I thought we had made it clear that you were to inform us of any attacks so that we could send help," said Dumbledore.

"Dorcas told us that Lily went off to send word to you. Lily was the one who sent us a Patronus telling us of the attack, we figured she must have done the same to you."

Moody examined his face and after failing to see a lie on it, he looked at Dumbledore. "I was right Albus."

Dumbledore nodded, "I agree, I should have listened to you Alastor."

"What is going on here? If Lily did not send word to you, where is she then?" James started to panic at the sad look on Dumbledore's face.

"I do not know."

…

A few hours later, Lily still had not shown up. Moody had grilled them all to find out what happened before going off with Dumbledore. James sat staring into the fire they had made. His friends sat beside him, faces identical in barely realised horror.

Moody and Dumbledore finally came back over to them. James jumped up, "Have you found out what happened yet?"

"No, but we can make a good guess," said Dumbledore.

"I warned you about this Albus," growled Moody.

"Yes, you keep saying that Alastor," sighed Dumbledore.

"What? What are you talking about?" asked James.

Dumbledore sighed again, "We were expecting something like this to happen, your escape before seemed to easy. I told Alastor that I did not think it would happen quite so soon, I thought that they would wait until the tide of the war could be determined. Alastor thought differently."

Moody grunted and shifted his weight, "I know how dark wizards think. Since Snape appears to be Voldemort's highest advisor, Voldemort would want to make sure that he works at his best. To do that, he would need Lily."

"I thought that Voldemort would decide to keep her here as a carrot for Snape, to encourage him to think of better ideas so that he could have her, it would appear that I was wrong," said Dumbledore. "We did give Lily protection spells, so that if she was in trouble we would be alerted immediately. It appears they did not work."

"Are you saying, that Lily has been captured because your _spells_ did not work?" asked James, dangerously.

"Calm down James, we do not need you rushing off without thinking again," said Moody.

"You expect me to just sit here?" he shouted, "While Lily is in trouble?"

"Yes, I do. That is your duty to your people."

"I do not give a damn about my duty! Lily needs help."

"James, I think they are right," said Sirius. James glared at him but Sirius kept talking, "No, listen James. Last time, they could have killed us so easily, we were lucky that Snape wanted to draw things out. If we go now, they will be expecting us. You know that that is why they wanted her, to lure you to your death."

"You cannot ask me to do nothing Sirius, please," begged James. When Sirius shook his head, James looked at Remus and Peter, who both shook their heads too. "Well, so much for my _friends_." James stalked off.

"Should we not be worried that he will take off by himself?" asked Remus.

Moody grinned as they heard a yelp from James. "No, I enchanted this village myself so that no one can leave without my say so."

Remus looked at Dumbledore, "I am a little confused, Lily sent us a Patronus, why did she not send one to you?"

"I do not think Lily sent that Patronus," said Dumbledore.

"She did, it was a doe."

"Snape's Patronus is also a doe."

"Why did you not tell me that Albus?" asked Alastor.

"I admit, I did not think that it would be important."

"But it was her voice!" said Sirius.

"It is not unheard of for the voice a Patronus uses to be changed. It is a complex spell, but most definitely possible."

"Great. So Lily is missing, James is going to be worried sick and you will not let us go and get her. What exactly is the plan then?" said Sirius sarcastically.

Dumbledore smiled, "Ah, Mister Black, we never did say that we did not have a plan. Even though we did not expect this to happen so soon, we were well prepared for it in any case."

"Well prepared?!" Sirius said, incredulously, "How on earth was this 'well prepared'?"

"Our protection spells may have failed, but we always counted that as a possibility. Lily was also well aware of the danger she was in. Do not fear, this will be turned to our advantage," said Moody, grinning madly.

The boys exchanged looks, this did not look like it was going to be good.


	29. Chapter 29

**This is my longest update yet, I hope you all enjoy it! I am trying to work on making the chapters longer, I had some time today so I actually managed it for once. Thanks once again to Jannice Sace and thank you for those tips, I shall definitely give that a go! Moody would have set the enchantments after the attack and as for the other answers... keep reading! Enjoy!**

...

Lily woke up to a pounding behind her eyes. She kept her eyes closed and listened for a time, there were voices in the distance but she could here nothing close by. Lily suppressed a groan as she remembered what had happened.

"_Lily, you need to go and tell the others what is happening," shouted Dorcas. _

_Lily nodded and left the battle behind. She went over near the forest and prepared to Apparate. _

"_Stupefy!"_

_She spun around and tried to dodge the spell to no effect. It hit her in the chest and she crumpled to the ground. _

Lily did a quick check of the spells that Dumbledore had given her. They had all been removed or broken, she could not tell. "Well, that was a great help," she thought. Luckily, the charms had severed the more important purpose of distracting her kidnappers from the _other _spell she had been given.

"_You understand the risk that you will be in?" asked Dumbledore._

"_Of course sir, but I still want to go through with it."_

_He smiled at her, "That is good then! I doubt even Voldemort would think of this plan, which is what makes it so important. Are you ready to begin?"_

_Lily nodded. Dumbledore carefully set to work. He very carefully placed a charm in her mind that was hidden behind many more layers of spells. He explained as he went, "Voldemort is quite a skilled Legilimens, so Occulemency may not be enough. To him, these spells will just be mundane memories, of no real interest. If he does go probing in them, he will find memories of your family, friends, people you love. There is nothing he hates more than Love."_

_He stepped away when he was finished. "How does that feel?" he enquired. _

_Lily felt around her mind. She could feel the spell there, it wasn't too uncomfortable. "Strange" she said, "but not in a bad way. It is just... there, I suppose."_

"_Good, that means your mind is not rejecting it. Let us test it out shall I? Think about something using the spell."_

_Lily thought about all the strange objects in Dumbledore's office. She tried to hypothesise what each of them were for. She got so carried away that Dumbledore cried out,"Stop, I think that is quite enough!"_

"_Sorry sir, did I do something wrong?" she asked anxiously._

"_No not at all, but I am running out of parchment."_

_Lily looked at his desk. There in front of him was a page full of writing. She recognised it as exactly what she had been thinking about. She grinned, "Ah, I see!"_

"_Yes. This way, you do not need to try and contact us if you discover something of importance, just make sure you use the spell as you witness it and we shall know immediately."_

Lily smiled as she used that spell now. "I am alright," she thought, "not sure where I am though." She quickly ran through all that she remembered of how she got there and then opened her eyes. She was in a dungeon, similar to the ones that she had been in previously. No one was around. Lily went to get up and found herself chained to the wall. "Original," she thought sarcastically before she remembered to stop using the spell. "That could get embarrassing really quickly." She heard a door open out of view and she sat up as best as she could. Lily wasn't surprised to see Snape sweep up to the doorway.

"Hello," he sneered, "How are you enjoying your room?"

Lily glared at him in reply. She tried to not let her terror show. It was one thing to tell herself that she would be fine and quite another to actually be here in front of him.

"I know that you are scared, Lily," said Snape, "you do not have to hide it on my account."

She stared at him in shock. She had not even felt him using Legilimency.

He laughed, "That is right my dear, you cannot hide anything from me."

In response, she blocked him out and turned her face from him.

"Awh, do not do that my dear," he reached down and took hold of her chin, directing her eyes back to his, "Ah, but you are using Occlumency, how quaint! Very well, I shall not pry, not yet anyhow..." he laughed at the expression on her face.

Lily was quite grateful to Dumbleore for teaching her Occlumency at that moment and she was even more thankful that he had also helped her develop a few more tricks in case she was interrogated. Neither of them had expected Snape to be doing the questioning however.

"I must say, I was disappointed at how easy it was to take you, I expected better protection for you. I would never have let you out so defenceless. Well, I suppose you had your darling James keeping an eye out for you. I had hoped that he would be there to see you taken but the silly boy just joined in the fight with everyone else."

Lily looked confused, James should not have been at the fight.

"Oh, I took the liberty of sending him a Patronus on your behalf, begging for help."

Lily just looked more confused, how could Snape send a Patronus from her?

He laughed at her expression before shouting "_Expecto Patronum!_" A silver doe burst out to stand in front of her. Lily looked at it in horror. She had not realised that Snape had become so obsessed with her that his Patronus mirrored hers.

"Do you see how much I love you Lily?" he asked softly, "I need you, so, so much. How else can I prove it to you?"

"Let me go?" she suggested sarcastically. "Stop kidnapping me? Stop hurting me? Seriously, it is not that hard to work out what to do." Lily stopped talking as she saw the slightly crazed expression on his face. "What did he do to you Severus?" she asked gently.

He laughed at her words, "_He_ did nothing to me, you did this. You caused this, it is your fault that I want you so much."

"How is it _my _fault?" Lily asked, outraged.

"You scorned me. You led me on for years and then you just went off with that good for nothing _Prince,_" Snape spat out.

Lily felt her temper flaring, "No, I did not! You were always like a brother to me, you knew that! I never said that I loved you in any other way. If you took our friendship to mean something else then that is your problem, not mine!"

"No Lily! You knew that I wanted to be more than friends!"

"And I told you that I could not do that, it would have been too strange. I do not love you in that way!"

Lily was startled when he punched her. He looked down at her as she clutched her cheek. "We shall see about that," he sneered. He stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

…

Back at the palace, James paced around the room as they waited for word from Lily. Dumbledore had explained to them that Lily had agreed to act as a spy for them and James was furious that they had not informed him that his betrothed had been used in such a way.

"Look!" Sirius said excitedly.

The piece of paper on Dumbledore's desk had writing appearing on it. They all clustered around to read the words.

_I am alright, not sure where I am though. _

_The last I remember, Dorcas told me to go and get help and I had gone off to the forest to Apparate when I was Stunned by someone, I do not know who. My protection spells are gone but this one feels like it is still working. _

_It looks like I am in a dungeon, I am chained to the wall, original. _

The writing stopped. James started to panic, "What is wrong? Why has it stopped."

"I imagine that she just stopped using the spell, she will use it again when she has more information." Dumbledore said soothingly.

"Calm down mate, she is fine," said Sirius.

James grunted and started pacing again.

A few minutes later, the writing started again.

_Snape just came to see me. He is using Legilimency but I blocked him out, I will have to be more careful in future. He does not suspect anything, it looks like he will be the one doing the questioning. He showed me his Patronus, I am sorry James, I did not think that his Patronus would have changed, I hope that you are alright and none of you were hurt in the fight._

"How does she know we are here?" asked Sirius. Everyone just looked at him until he realised. "Oh, well, of course we are here, She would know how furious James would be about being left out of the loop." Right on cue, the writing continued.

_I am sorry James that I did not tell you, but we had to make it look like we were not planning anything, you never would have let me leave your sight if you knew the plan. Please forgive me. _

_That is all I know for now, I will contact you again when I know more. _

_Love you James. _

James sighed, "She is right, I would have ruined it all," he looked at Dumbledore, "I apologise for acting so ridiculously."

"It is alright James, we knew that you would react that way. I also would like to apologise for not informing you sooner, though now that you know, we will start work on planning Lily's rescue."

"But I thought the whole idea was that she get captured," said Peter, confused.

"Yes, but we may need to get her out in a hurry so we will need a plan as soon as possible. Do you think you four can do that?"

"Of course!" they said. As they went to leave, James turned back to Dumbledore. "Is there any way to contact Lily?"

Dumbledore shook his head, "We thought it would be too risky, Lily will already have to be very careful with her thoughts, we did not want to complicate matters any more than we already have."

James nodded and left with his friends. They had plans to make.

…

"Are you pleased Severus?"

"Very, my Lord. I am so very happy to have my Lily back." Snape smiled for what felt like the first time in months.

"That is well, I hated to see you pining after her. Would you like me to interrogate her, or would you prefer to do that yourself?"

"I would like to do it my Lord. I need to teach her what happens when she tries to leave me for another man."

"Very good Severus. Let me know what you discover. I do not think it will be much though, they would never have let her be part of any of their plans."

"Are you sure my Lord? Lily is a stubborn person, I would have thought that she would want to be made privy to their plans."

"They knew that an attempt at taking her would be made, they put enough protection spells on her! Dumbledore is clever enough to know what would happen and what will happen to her now. She was almost broken once before, it will be much easier this time."

"Forgive me my Lord, but what if they planned for us to take her? What if she is a spy?"

Voldemort laughed, "Who would agree to return to the place where they were tortured just to find out some information? No Severus, she would never agree to that. Was she scared when she saw you?"

"Terrified."

"Exactly. We do not need to worry about dear Miss Evans. And how would she be able to contact anyone? It is impossible, this fortress is impenetrable."

Snape nodded, "Very well then my Lord. Shall I go and see what little she does know then?"

"Of course. Oh and Severus?" he called as Snape made to leave, "Do enjoy yourself."

Snape smirked in reply before leaving.


	30. Chapter 30

**Another longer update for you all, I would have made it longer but I need to do some work... A huge thankyou to Jannice Sace for the review, I know what you mean and I have tried to fix it in this chapter, let me know if it is still a little stiff. I've been finding James especially one of the harder characters to write so hopefully it isn't as awkward this time. Thankyou so much for the help, I always like it when I can try and improve my writing, if anyone picks up on anything please tell me! Enjoy!**

...

Lily woke up with a jump. She looked around, confused, until she remembered where she was. "How on earth did I manage to fall asleep like this?" she wondered. Her hands were still shackled to the wall and she had somehow managed to contort herself into an odd position while she slept. She tried to untangle herself and work out some of the kinks that her awkward sleep had given her.

The door opened and Lily quickly looked towards it. Snape smiled at her as he came towards her. "Good morning darling, did you sleep well?" He ignored Lily's glare and crouched down beside her, "Oh, do not frown my dear, you look so much more beautiful when you smile." He unlocked the shackles and Lily jumped up and ran for the open door. She only got a few steps before her legs cramped and she fell down, hitting the floor with a loud smack.

Snape laughed and came to help her back up, "Now Lily, surely you remember that from last time, you need to move around a little first before you make your escape attempts!"

She shook him off and glared, "Leave me alone Snape."

"Why would I do that? I love you Lily, I want to spend all my time with you."

"Would you stop saying that! If you loved me, you would let me go!"

"I cannot do that Lily, I need you."

"Why? What dastardly scheme have you cooked up with your 'master'?" she said, sarcasm dripping from every word.

He came over to stare into her eyes. "You just do not get it do you Lily? No, we do not need you for our plans, we are close to winning anyway. Once your little Prince is out of the way, we will take over. And it will not take too long for that to happen I assure you. I have something special planned for him."

"Then why am I here?"

"I have told you Lily! Because I love you, I need you. I cannot survive without you!"

Lily tried to back away from him but he grabbed her wrist.

"Do not try to get away from me! You are mine, do you understand? Your _Prince_ gave you up when he did not protect you, he has no claim to you now."

Lily was enraged, "Excuse me! I am not some _toy_ that you are fighting over! You do not own me! And you certainly do not torture me to prove that you love me, how sick is that. You disgust me," she spat.

Snape looked taken aback for a moment before his face took on that scary, half-crazed look that Lily had seen last night. "What do I do then Lily? How else could I get your attention? You always said that pretty flowers and gifts would never work on you, though, I suppose that is how James won you over in the end. It turns out you are just some shallow headed girl like the rest of them, ready to spread your legs for the first man to compliment you!"

Lily slapped him. She knew she shouldn't have, but she couldn't stop her hand hitting his face, she was so furious.

Snape looked at her, an evil looking smile working its way onto his face. "Touched a nerve did I? Well, let us see if we can find any more. _Crucio_."

Lily heard her screams reverberate around the room before the pain overtook her and she blacked out.

…

James looked over the parchment on the table as they ate breakfast. They had worked most of the night trying to come up with some plans but it was proving to be a difficult task. Moody had given them a list of the possible headquarters that Snape could be using. All of them were almost impossible to get into and even harder to get out again.

Remus sat down and helped himself to some food, "Any progress?" he asked.

"Not really, our best plan is still sneak in with the Invisibility Cloak and hope we get out again." said James

"Peter could go in as a rat too." said Remus.

"Yes, but the problem is getting out. We need to get Lily out too."

"It is a shame that Peter is not just a little bigger as a rat, he could carry the Cloak in to give to Lily."

James stared at him, "Remus, you are a genius!"

Remus looked puzzled, "I am? Well, thanks James, I appreciate the compliment, but I am not sure what it is for."

"Peter can sneak in wearing the Cloak, give it to Lily and then turn into a rat and get out!"

"That's brilliant James!" said Remus.

"You were the one that said it in the first place. I just rearranged it. Lets go tell Dumbledore." James bounced out of the room. Remus smiled and followed at a more restrained pace.

…

"We worked it out!" James shouted as he entered Dumbledore's office. He slowed when he saw that his father and Moody were also in the room. They all wore very serious expressions.

"What is it? Has something happened? Is Lily alright?" James asked anxiously.

"We do not know about Lily, she has not contacted us yet." said Dumbledore.

"There was another attack last night." said King Harold.

"Who did we lose?" asked James.

"The whole village was destroyed. Caradoc Dearborn was the one stationed there. We have found no trace of him."

James was quiet, he had liked Caradoc, who was a few years older than himself.

"Did you have some good news to tell us? We could use some," said King Harold.

"We know how we can get Lily, we only need to work out where she is."

"That is excellent! Are you going to tell us how you will do it?"

"Uhh, I thought that it would be best to keep it to ourselves, just in case word gets out. It is the only plan we have, so we do not want to ruin it before we can try it."

Moody nodded, "Very wise, I am glad to see that some of the training stuck in that thick head of yours."

James grinned cheekily before walking to the door, "If you do not mind, we have some more details to straighten out."

…

"Wake up Lily," said a voice.

She stirred but did not open her eyes.

"Here drink this, it will help."

Lily swallowed a mouthful before she woke up enough to spit the rest out. She tried to jump up but she was chained up again. Looking around, she saw a woman standing over her.

"Ah, I see what Snape meant about your eyes, they are lovely. Maybe I shall have to cut them out." she cackled hysterically.

Lily did not know who this woman was, but she looked as crazy as the rest of the people that worked for Voldemort.

"My name is Bellatrix and I will be your torturer this evening! I do hope you are as excited as I am!"

Lily glared at her, now that she knew who she was. This was the cousin that Sirius told her about, the one that killed a man who had only looked at her. She would have to be careful about what she said to this woman.

"Poor Severus just could not get anything out of you, he is much too soft for such work. Shall we get started?" she said with an insane laugh before drawing her wand.

...

Back at their meeting room, James told his friends the news about Caradoc. Sirius shrugged, to him it was unfortunate but understandable, this was going to happen sooner or later. Remus looked sad, he had gotten along very well with Caradoc. Peter looked scared, he had not thought about the risk that they were all taking.

"The good news is that Remus and I thought of a great rescue plan at breakfast, did you tell them about it?" he asked Remus. The other boy shook his head and James continued, "The plan at the moment is for Peter to hide under the Cloak and sneak in to wherever they have Lily. Once he finds her, she can use the Cloak to get out and he can become a rat and go with her."

Peter looked absolutely terrified at this suggestion. Sirius looked skeptical, "That is a good idea mate, but Pete? He cannot sneak, no offense mate," he said looking at Peter who shrugged, "but Pete is not the one you want for this. I could do it, I am a good sneaker upperer!"

"Is that even a word?" asked James. They looked at Remus.

"I will allow it, ridiculous as it is," he said with a shake of his head.

"Moving on, I would be perfect for it. I am also a quicker thinker than Wormtail."

"Yes, but you are a dog Sirius, a dog is going to be noticed. A rat is much more inconspicuous, I think Pete would do a good job of it," said James.

Peter blushed at his words, he knew he wasn't as good as they were at spells but it was nice that James trusted him with such an important job.

"I can do it," Peter said. "Well, I think I could. If I have the Cloak, that will make it really easy to sneak around and get Lily."

James beamed at him, "Thanks Pete! You are the best."

Sirius sighed, "Fine, if you think you can do it, then that will be fine I guess. We can help you prepare though, make sure you know some useful spells and such."

"Thanks Sirius!" squeaked Peter.

"Now, we need to work out where she is," said James. "Hopefully she will be able to tell us, but failing that, I think we should convince Dumbledore to let us scout around."

"What about those prisoners they got, are they going to interrogate them?" asked Sirius.

"I think so, but they may still give us bad information. We can at the very least get a short list of places from them and then go and investigate ourselves from there."

"I like that idea, an adventure at last!" Sirius bounced around the room in joy.

…

"Bellatrix my dear, what did you find out."

"I am sorry to disappoint you master, but she knew nothing of real interest. She did scream a lot, in a most adorable way. I can see why you like her so much Snape."

Snape glared at her, "I hope you did not do anything permanent Bellatrix, if you did..."

"Do not threaten me Snape, I barely touched your precious Mudblood. I could have done so much more," she sighed. "All I did was give her a few lashes, maybe a Crucio or two, fairly harmless really. She was quite willing to tell me about everything though, she told me that Dumbledore had set up a secret Order, they have been training with Moody. There is at least one of them near each outlying village so word can be sent quickly of any attacks. That seems to be the extent of her knowledge, most dull, I was hoping for at least a little juicy gossip."

"You see Severus, I told you that she would know nothing that we did not already know ourselves. She is all yours now, do what you wish with her. I will ask that you do not kill her, she may still prove useful in other ways."

Snape nodded and swept out of the room.

"He looks like an overgrown bat when he does that," remarked Bellatrix. "I hope he is pleased with his little lady's new look, I worked _so_ hard on it."

Voldemort smiled at her, "What did you do Bella?"

"Oh, I kept it mild, she has a few burns here and there, there will also be some interesting scars. I took the liberty of marking her as Snape's whore, no man will want her again. I hope Snape appreciates the effort I went to."

With a chuckle, Voldemort stood up, "Ah Bella, I was blessed the day you came to me. No one else has the delicious mind you do."

Bellatrix blushed with pleasure as she watched her master leave.


	31. Chapter 31

**Early update today, I probably won't have time to update tonight so here you go! Thanks to Jannice Sace once again, yes, Peter will become very important to the story line soon and I'm glad you liked the bit with Lily (I did too, it was quite satisfying to have her hit him :P). I actually wrote half of this before your review so I was quite pleased to see that you had picked up on so much of what is going to happen, I hope you like it! I am trying to show a different side to Snape, so if it is too out of character, please let me know so I can fix it, I am not sure if I have taken too big of a jump with this one. It felt right to me, but I'm not sure if it will read that way. Anyway, I've talked enough, enjoy!**

...

Snape tried not to run as he made his way to the dungeons. He threw open the door to Lily's cell and stopped short. Lily was lying in a pool of blood, she had so many wounds that he could not tell where one started and the next ended. He ran to her and cradled her in his arms.

"Lily? Please wake up Lily."

She stirred, just a little, but it was enough that he knew she wasn't dead. He quickly took out his wand and began to heal her. When he was sure that she wouldn't die in the mean time, he ran back to his rooms to find his strongest healing potions for her. He raced back and gave them to her gently. He spent over an hour toiling over her, when he was done there was barely a scar to show what had happened. As he sat back to breathe for a moment, he saw that Lily's eyes were open, she stared at him in shock.

"Lily?" Snape reached a hand out gently to touch her, but she flinched away from him. "I am so sorry Lily, I did not want her near you, he said that I had to let her find out what you knew, please forgive me Lily!"

Lily did not know what to do, Snape was lying next to her, sobbing. It was such a change from the man that she had seen recently, he reminded her of the young boy who had befriended her years ago.

"_That is magic," said a boy Lily had seen but never talked to. Lily hadn't realised that anyone had been watching her. _

"_No it is not, I do not know what you are talking about," she said with a huff as she went to walk away from him. _

"_No, stop! I can do it too, look!" The boy picked up a leaf and made it hover over his hand. _

_Lily laughed and clapped her hands in joy, "Wow, can you show me how to do that?"_

"_No, I just did it, I do not know how." _

"_Oh, that is alright then. I should be going home or I will be late for dinner anyway."_

"_Wait!" he called frantically, "There is someone that will teach us both how to do things, the healing women over in the next village, she takes children that have magic and teaches them."_

"_But she is a witch!" Lily said, scandalised. _

_The boy laughed at her, "So are you!"_

_She scowled at him, "That is not a very nice thing to say."_

"_Why? All the important people have magic you know, even the King does! Why do you think it is a bad thing?" he asked her. _

"_My sister said that only bad people have magic."_

"_Your sister is wrong then, good people have it too."_

"_Are we good people then?" she asked him, eyes wide. _

"_Of course we are!" he smiled at her and held out his hand, "My name is Severus."_

Lily sat up with a groan and patted Snape awkwardly on the head. "It is alright, I know about Bellatrix, I got off lightly."

"How could you say that Lily? Look at all the blood!"

"It is not so different to what I went through when I was with you," she said sadly. Severus looked stunned. Lily gave him a sad smile, "Really, I am almost used to it by now. Thank you for healing me though, that was a nice thing to do."

Snape stood up and offered her his hand. She looked at it, confused. "You do not need to stay here any more, the Dark Lord said I could do whatever I wanted with you know."

Lily looked like she was going to refuse but he jumped in before she could speak the words, "No, I did not mean like that! I just... I thought you might want to sleep in a normal bed, you probably need to sleep so the healing sticks."

Lily was undecided, but it was a tempting offer. She took his hand but could not repress the small shudder that shook her when she touched his clammy hand. Snape led her out of the dungeon and back to his rooms. He showed her to a small room that had a bed and went to leave. Lily was surprised, she thought that he would impose himself on her. She was even more shocked when he bid her a goodnight and shut the door.

She sat down on the bed, completely stunned. "I may as well get some sleep before he changes his mind," she thought. She quickly sent a quick message to Dumbledore to let them know she was alive before falling quickly asleep.

…

Dumbledore came to deliver the news himself. All four of them went white when they heard what had happened.

"Excuse me," said James, "I need to go for a walk." He brushed off his friends offers of companionship and escaped outside. He ran for the forest and became a stag, it had always been a comforting shape to him. "How could Snape let Bellatrix Lestrange near Lily? He keeps going on about how much he loves her, if that was true then this would not have happened," he thought. James knew that he couldn't rush off and get her now, Lily would be furious at him. He had also realised that he needed to let her do this, if he went charging in and destroyed her mission because he thought it was too dangerous, she would never forgive him. He would be as bad as Snape then, trying to lock her up even if it was for her own protection. He sighed, things had been so much easier when she hated him and he was forever trying to impress her, he didn't have to worry about these things then.

A large, black dog came bounding up. James was slightly annoyed, he had wanted to be alone, but the presence of someone else was a little comforting. James knew he couldn't sulk forever, maybe the best thing for him would be to be out cursing the people that took Lily and protecting his people.

Sirius grinned a doggy grin at him and tried to lick his face. James used a hoof to push him away and raced him back to the palace.

…

Snape found Bellatrix down in the dungeons, torturing some of the captives. "I do not know why you are still bothering with that one, I do no think he can even hear you any more," he remarked dryly.

"This is too much fun to stop just because they are close to death, I want to see how much I can push this one."

"Fascinating," he drawled. "I would like a word Bellatrix, if you would be so kind."

"About your darling Mudblood? I hope you appreciate the effort that went into that work of art Snape."

"Yes, let me show you how much I _appreciated_ your art work." Snape whipped out his wand and pinned Bellatrix to the wall before working one of his favourite charms on her. She screamed at him. "Do you know what this spell is Bella? No, of course you do not, it is one of my own little inventions," he said with a smile. "It is quite a clever one if I do say so myself. All the pain that you have caused Lily is what you are feeling now and if I do _this_," he flicked his wand and her screams doubled in volume, "it multiplies the pain. I do hope you appreciate the work that you put into your work, now you can experience it first hand! They tell me that is the only way to get a true feel of a work of art." He turned away from the now slumped woman.

"Snape!" she screamed, "You will pay for this! I was under orders by the Master himself!"

"No, you were told to get information from her, not torture her to death." He ignored the screams that followed him as he left.

…

Lily woke up feeling refreshed. She got up and stretched and accidentally kicked a tray that had been placed by her bed. Picking it up, she saw a beautiful red rose on the plate along with some food and water. She ate the food without bothering to worry if it was poisoned, she was too hungry. She left the flower on the plate, she did not want to give him the wrong idea after what he had said to her before.

There was a soft knock at the door and she heard it unlock. Snape entered, a smile on his face when he saw that she was awake.

"I am sorry to intrude, I just wanted to see if you were alright," he said.

"Yes, I am fine. Thank you for the food."

"It was nothing." He stood awkwardly, trying to work out what to say. "Lily, I..." he stopped. He shook his head and left the room, leaving a puzzled Lily. She did not miss the click as the door locked again. With a sigh, she lay back down, no use wasting sleep now.

…

"What is wrong Severus? I hate to see you looking so down. Are you unhappy with your reward?"

"No my Lord, just confused."

"About what?"

"I almost let her go. I was about to tell her to just leave and never come back, to go back to her Prince and be happy."

"Why would you do that Severus, I thought she was what you wanted."

Snape sighed, "After seeing what Bellatrix did and then having Lily tell me that 'it was alright' because I had done worse, it made me realise that I cannot force her to love me. If anything, I have destroyed any chance I had in the first place."

"Do not despair Severus, she does love you, she just needs to be reminded of that."

"The only way to prove that is to let her go."

"You cannot do that Severus," said Voldemort. "She is your reward and that is that. I want you to make her realise what she could bring to our little band, she has a great potential."

Snape looked at him in surprise, "Is that why you gave her to me? To make me convert her so that you can use her?"

"It is not the only reason, she also will prove useful as bait for that Prince. I may have to inform them of where this place is so that they come and rescue her soon, I am getting impatient."

Snape stood up, "No! Lily is a good person, I will not corrupt her. I will go and let her go right now, she still has a chance to be happy."

"Do not walk away from me Severus!" Voldemore sent a curse that froze him in place. "My will is that she stays here, do not try to defy me. I have been too lenient on you, it is time I remind you why I am the one you call 'master'. With an evil laugh, he waved his wand and Snape fell, screaming, to the floor.


	32. Chapter 32

**Sorry for the lack of updates, I have been very busy and I probably will be for the next few weeks. I have a very short update today, I'll try and write a bit every day and update a couple of times a week if I can, I just wanted to get something up so I could apologise. Thank you to Jannice Sace for the review, yes, Peter will probably turn bad, I have that bit all worked out and I can't wait to write it! Unfortunately, I have to get there first... Enjoy!**

...

"May I have a turn master? I have so many things that I would like to try on him," wheedled Bellatrix.

"I would love to let you Bella, but I need him alive and relatively unharmed. I think he has almost learned his lesson by now." They looked at the figure that was hanging from the wall. "Well Severus, who is your master?"

The man stirred. "You are, my Lord," he mumbled.

"And do you understand what happens to traitors Severus?"

"Yes, my Lord."

"Very good. However, I do not trust that you will remember the lesson, so I shall have to make it stick." With a nod at Bellatrix, who smiled with glee, he moved closer to Snape. Bellatrix grabbed his hair and forced his head backwards while Voldemort forced a potion down his throat. After a minute, Voldemort grabbed Snape's face and forced him to look into his eyes.

Bellatrix grew bored as she waited for the two men to move again. She entertained herself by imagining all the things she could do to Snape in revenge. She was just getting to some of the juiciest ideas when she saw the Dark Lord blink. He pulled away from Snape who slumped in the chains. Voldemort waved his wand, causing the chains to vanish and Snape to crumple to the ground. "Come Bella," he commanded. He led her back the hall and sat in his throne-like chair. Bellatrix knelt before him.

"May I ask, what did you do to him?" she said timidly.

"Of course you may Bella, I am trialling a new idea of mine. The potion was similar to the Imperius curse, but with a few... tweaks. Not only does it compel the victim to do my will, it also allows memories to be modified. Only slightly, too much and they will notice. It just twists them a little, gives them a different feeling. Quite clever, if I do say so myself."

"That is clever my Lord. I take it you made it so Severus is committed to your cause?"

"Of course. I also ensured that his little Mudblood will pay for turning him against me. With any luck, Severus will be able to turn her as well to our side, we will be unstoppable then."

Bellatrix pouted, "We do not need her, my Lord. You have me, I can do anything that _she_ can."

"Not anything, Bella my dear. Miss Evans will provide us with the key to the palace, she will bring us Prince James. Just think how much more delightful it will be if we let Lily go back to James only for her to show her true colours. Then she shall bring him back to us and we will have some entertainment, it is so dull at the moment. Imagine his face when his torturer is the woman he loves." Voldemort laughed at the thought, Bellatrix looked awed. Then she grinned slyly.

"May I have a turn with him, my Lord. I promise that I will not break him too much."

"Of course Bella, you deserve a reward for all your hard work."

"Master?"

"Yes Bella?"

"Why not let Prince James come here? Why not let him try to rescue her and then capture him then?"

"Ah Bella, you are a sharp one! I was going to do that, but one of my Death Eaters brought me news of an interesting prophecy some time ago. It talks of a child that I believe will be born to Miss Evans and her Prince. I had hoped that I could circumvent the prophecy by having her marry Severus, but that plan failed. Instead, I'm thinking that I shall let her attend her wedding, let them feel hope for a time and then I shall take it from them. It will be much more satisfying in the long run."

"Why not kill her now?"

"And lose all this entertainment? No, I cannot do that to poor Severus, if I killed her then he would never serve me. If I let her live, he will be loyal to me forever."

"But Master, what if the prophecy is true?"

"Do not fret my dear, I shall never let that happen. Lord Voldemort cannot be destroyed by a mere child," he said with an evil laugh. "I think it is time to give the troops a look over, I think we need to let King Harold know what we are capable of."


	33. Chapter 33

**Hello again! I am very sorry about the huge break, a lot of things have been happening lately (not all of them good) so I have found it quite hard to write much. I only have a short update tonight, it's getting late and I wanted to get something done so that I would be motivated to write some more. I am not sure how often I will be able to update from now on, uni is going to be very intense this semester, but I will update as much as I can. A huge thanks to everyone that has been reading this story and an extra special thankyou to pamrawr, EgyptianIsis, Firedragon99 and Princess Juliet Rose for favouriting my story. And as always, a gigantic thanks to Jannice Sace for the review, Voldemort would have only heard part of the prophecy, otherwise he might be a little more careful about letting things happen... Anyway, enjoy!**

...

When Snape entered her room, Lily couldn't stop the gasp that escaped her. He looked terrible. His face was covered in nasty looking cuts and scratches, many of the gashes continued down his neck and under his robes. His eyes were wild, his hands shook and Lily could not place the look on his face. She stood up and approached him carefully, as if he were a wild animal.

"Severus?" she asked gently.

He glared at her and Lily shrank back.

"What did they do to you Severus?"

"You did this Lily. You tried to distract me from the Dark Lord's cause."

Lily opened her mouth to protest, only to have Snape point his wand at her.

…

James and Sirius were planning their next move. Lily had been gone for over a month and James had thrown himself into the war to distract himself. The stress was starting to tell on everyone, after some initial successes, Voldemort's forces had been steadily advancing. More and more towns were being wiped out each day and the King's forces were struggling to cope.

The door opened and Dumbledore entered the room, "I am sorry to disturb you, I know you have important work, but I need your help."

"Of course, what is wrong?"

"I believe Lily needs help, she has not contacted us for two weeks now."

"Two weeks! Why have we not gone sooner?"

"Lily and I agreed that two weeks would be the limit, unfortunately that deadline has come and gone. It is time for you to get her out of there."

"You should have told us before now!" shouted James.

"Would that have helped? You agreed that all information about Lily would be strictly on a need to know basis, the risk that any of you would be captured was too great."

James grumbled a little and Sirius interrupted, "Do you know where she is?"

Dumbledore smiled, "The good news is that we do. One of the captives gave us the information, it appears to be accurate."

"When can we go?" James said eagerly.

"Whenever you are ready to go."

…

Peter walked carefully into the cave. He could not stop his legs from shaking, he was that terrified. The two guards standing in the shadows didn't bat an eyelid as he crept past them and Peter carefully let out the breath he hadn't realised he was holding.

"_Do you understand the plan?" James asked him._

"_Yes. Sneak in with the Invisibility Cloak, find Lily, give her the cloak and turn into a rat to get out."_

_James smiled at him, "Exactly. Dumbledore said that Lily was not in the dungeons last time she contacted him, so try and find Snape's rooms if you can, she is most likely to be there. If you run into trouble, send us a Patronus, we will come and get you." James clapped a hand on his shoulder, "Good luck Peter and thank you for this."_

Peter walked on as quietly as he could, the Cloak swishing slightly around his ankles. As he turned the corners, he was surprised that he didn't encounter anyone at all, surely it had to be harder than this to sneak into the Dark Lord's hideout.

"So good of you to join us," came a voice. Peter jumped and almost squeaked in surprise as he found himself surrounded on all sides by Death Eaters. A man stepped forward, though he could hardly be called a man. He looked more like a cross between a snake and a ghost.

"I know that you are there Peter, I can hear your thoughts. Take off that cloak so that we can talk properly, face to face as it where."

Peter trembled as he removed the Cloak. He knew there was no hope for him now, he couldn't signal his friends to help him and he was not brave enough to try and battle his way out of the situation.

"There is no need for violence Peter," said the Dark Lord, "I merely want to talk to you. I have an offer that would suit you quite well I believe."

"I d..d..do not w..want anything from you," Peter stuttered.

"Come now, I am sure that you want your life? I will be more than willing to allow you to live if you do a few favours for me."

"N..n..no, my friends would k..kill me."

"Then they would not be your friends would they. Let us sit down and discuss this properly."

With some prompting from the masked men surrounding him, Peter followed Voldemort into a side room. The Dark Lord gestured to a chair and Peter sat down gingerly.

"Now, Peter, I know that you are very loyal to your friends. But are they as loyal to you? They sent you in here, unprotected, and look where it got you." Peter opened his mouth to reply, but the Dark Lord cut him off, "No, please do not defend them. They are not worthy of being your friends. However, I could be a good friend to you. I will ensure your protection, from your so called friends as well as my Death Eaters. You will be treated well and with respect. I am sure that you wish your friends would respect you more. Here is a way that you can make them. All I ask is that you help me out a little."

Peter looked at Voldemort carefully. He was right, he did want more respect. Everyone always thought of him as the other's sidekick, their servant, the one who runs the errands.

"No one would think of you that way again if you agreed to help me," murmured the Dark Lord, "I will grant you power beyond your wildest dreams. No one would look down on you again, they would bow down to you instead."

"What do you want me to do?" asked Peter.

"Nothing much. You would pass me information about the King's doings, what Dumbledore is planning and so on. It will not be dangerous, as long as you keep it secret from your friends."

"That would not be hard, they would never believe that I was clever enough to do that," Peter said disdainfully.

"And that is why I have _specifically_ chosen you Peter. You will be my own personal rat, answering only to me and no one else. Do you like my offer?"

Peter smiled, "I do."

Voldemort grinned, "Wonderful. In that case, we had better get you over to Miss Evans rooms."

Peter looked at him, confused.

"Well, what better way to convince your friends of your loyalty and skill than to rescue the dear damsel? That is why you are here, is it not?" Voldemort stood up and Peter hurried to do the same. He followed the Dark Lord along the passageways until they stopped at a locked door.

"Miss Evans is in here, she should be more than willing to go with you. You should not have any trouble getting her out of here. Now, when you return to the palace, keep an ear out for me. If you come across any useful information, send it to me at once."

"How do I do that my Lord? I am sure that there are a great number of spells around the place to stop any correspondence leaving."

"In that case, you should come and tell me in person if anything happens. Can you Apparate?"

"Yes, my Lord, I can."

"Then I have no doubts that a man of your talents will be able to do as I have asked. Now, you had better hurry, I am sure poor Prince James is anxious to see his lovely lady again."

Peter watched as Voldemort walked away. He steeled himself as he opened the door.


	34. Chapter 34

**Update! I hope you all enjoy it, a big thanks to jubi95 for adding my story to their favourite list. Thanks once again to Jannice Sace, I will slowly reveal what Snape did, I don't want to spoil it all at once! This chapter may explain a little of your question... It is a lot of fun to write from Voldemort's point of view, I quite enjoy making him be one of those white Persian cat stroking villains. I know what you mean, it's a good thing he is that way or I wouldn't have much of a story! This chapter is for you because I could not stop writing after I read your review, thankyou so much! Enjoy**

...

Sirius lent casually against a tree as he watched James pace anxiously. Remus sat with his eyes closed, tension showing in his face. No one had spoken since Peter had entered the cave, no one wanted to voice the doubts that they had. They all jumped at the crack of a twig breaking and simultaneously reached for the wands.

"I am sorry, I did not mean to scare you," a soft voice said. Lily emerged from under the Cloak and gave them a small smile.

James ran over to her and buried her in a hug. Lily gave a soft laugh before bursting into tears. James nodded at the others before Apparating back to the palace with Lily.

"Where is Peter?" asked Remus.

"Here I am," Peter said as he turned back into a human.

"Peter!" Sirius clapped him on the back, "You did it mate! Bloody fantastic!"

"It was nothing, really. Once I was past the first guards, I did not see a soul. I just kept looking until I found Lily and then we got out of there."

Sirius grinned at him, "Do not be so modest Peter! Come on, lets go home so we can celebrate!"

With a loud crack, they vanished.

…

They found James waiting outside of Lily's rooms. After much congratulating of Peter and many exclamations of "I knew you could do it!" Remus asked James how Lily was.

James looked sad, "I do not know yet, she was not in a good way when we got here, Madame Pomfrey and Dumbledore are in there now. How was she when you found her Peter?"

Peter looked nervously at James, "Well, she was shackled to the wall in the room she was in. She did not respond to me at first, I think she thought I was a hallucination. Once I explained everything and showed her the Cloak she cheered up a little. I had to use a few spells to help her get up and walking, she was in a lot of pain." Peter winced as James went pale.

"I should not have let her stay there that long, who knows what they have done to her," he moaned.

"James, it was her decision. She provided us with a lot of useful information, she saved peoples lives. She knew the risks and was willing to suffer for the rest of us. She also knows that we are all here to help her with whatever she needs," said Remus gently.

James nodded and they all settled down to wait.

…

Dumbledore emerged some time later. James jumped up and started pestering him with questions.

"Calm down James, Lily will be fine, in a physical sense anyway."

"What do you mean? Is there something wrong with her mind?"

Dumbledore sighed, "It appears that they found the spells that we had used to communicate. We will not know exactly how that happened until she wakes. They removed the spells, but there may be some damage, Lord Voldemort is not known for his delicacy."

"Damage?" whispered James.

"I cannot yet be sure. We will just have to wait before we can find out more. I am sorry James."

"Sorry? You are sorry?!" James' voice broke on the last word, "How the hell did you convince me to allow this?!"

Sirius grabbed his arm, "Calm down James, it is not his fault."

"Yes it is! My betrothed is _damaged_ and you are trying to tell me that Dumbledore is blameless? She was fine before he sent her off on that ridiculous mission and now she is not. So tell me, who should I blame?"

"Lily was not fine James," said Remus.

"What are you talking about, of course she was."

"No, she was not. She tried to hide it, but she was most definitely not fine. She jumped at everything, she was not sleeping and when you had one of your rages she was almost terrified out of her wits."

"If she was not alright why did she agree to going on that stupid mission then?"

"Think about it James, she agreed _because_ she was not alright." Remus looked at Dumbledore, "She went because she wanted to face her demons right?"

Dumbledore noddded, "Lily thought that the best way for her to deal with everything would be to go back and remove the association that Snape had created with you, James. She also wanted to help people and she has."

"And where did that get her? She is worse off now then she was before!"

"We do not know that yet," said Dumbledore.

James glared at the others, "Well then, since you have all decided to gang up against me on this, I will just go and sit with her until she wakes up. If she does not want me around then, she can tell me herself instead of running away again."

"I do not think that would be a good idea James," said Dumbledore.

James opened his mouth to rage at the old man but Sirius interrupted him, "He is right James, or can you not remember the last time you were having a tantrum in front of Lily?"

"Fine! I will leave her alone, I will leave all of you alone!" James stormed off out of sight.

Remus sighed, "Who's turn is it to go after him?"

"No, let him walk it off," Sirius said. "He will realise what an idiot he is being soon enough. He is just worried about Lily and probably more than a little frightened for her."

"I hope I can trust you all to be discreet, we do not want word of this getting about the place," said Dumbledore gravely. The three boys nodded their agreement and watched as he walked away.

Peter was the first to break the silence, "Do you really think that Lily will be alright?"

Remus smiled, "Eventually. If we can win this war, and make sure that Snape and You-Know-Who never bother her again, I think that we can all live happily ever after. Or, as happily as possible anyway."

…

"So, dear Wormtail, what news do you bring me?"

"Nothing much my Lord," quivered Peter, "Lily has yet to wake and they are very worried about what she will be like when she does. James is furious with everyone, he has not been seen by anyone for two days now."

"Ah, that is delightful! I may get lucky and have the little Prince come straight to me. It may not be as fun as what I had planned, however, I am sure that I will enjoy myself regardless. Thank you Peter, you may go now. And remember to inform me immediately if you hear anything of importance."

Lord Voldemort watched as Pettigrew bowed before scurrying out of the room.

"He is an odd little man," came a female voice.

"Ah. Bella, I had hoped that you had been listening."

"Of course, I do so love to hear news of that sweet little girl. I must ask, what did you do to her that has them all so worried?"

"_I_ did nothing. Severus, on the other hand, has been quite a busy boy! It turns out he was right from the beginning, Lily did come here to spy on us. Luckily, Snape took care of that and also added a few minor changes to their spells."

"Ooh, like having her bring us the Prince? I am looking forward to playing with him," Bellatrix said with relish.

"Yes Bella, I do not think you will have to wait too long either. Poor little Lily will have no idea what she is about to do to help me win the war."

Bella smirked as she watched her master leave. She had so many ideas of fun things to do with him that she did not know where to start.


	35. Chapter 35

**Longer update today, I wanted to move things along a little. Thanks once again to Jannice Sace for the review and Happy Birthday for the other day! I was going to right in a scene where it was someone's birthday and they were singing Happy Birthday, but according to Wikipedia, all their birthdays are at the wrong time of year. I can't get the mental image of Bellatrix being Voldemort's cat out of my head now either... anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

...

Lily awoke to a beautiful sunrise streaming through her window. She rolled over and smiled, enjoying the warmth on her face. She stretched before fully realising where she was. She jumped up out of bed and looked around, trying to quell the hope that she felt rising within her heart. When the room didn't shimmer away, she grinned and ran out of the room. Lily was a little surprised when she didn't encounter anyone as she made her way through the castle, but she kept going until she reached their meeting room. Halting for a moment, she took a deep breath and opened the door.

The three boys looked up, startled. Remus grinned before he stood up and gave her a hug. "It is good to see you awake, how are you feeling?"

Lily was smothered by a very boisterous Sirius before she could reply. She laughed and returned his hug.

"Are you glad to see me Lily?" asked Sirius.

"Of course I am Sirius, but I would be even more happy if you let me breathe."

Sirius stepped away with a cheeky grin. Peter was the next one to greet her shyly with a hug, "It is good to see you Lily, maybe now James will calm down a little."

Lily looked concerned, "What? What is wrong with James?"

"Oh, nothing, he is just being an idiot," said Sirius.

Remus glared at Sirius, "No, he was just very worried about you. Dumbledore was a little worried that you would not be... well... when you woke up."

"I feel great. Better than great actually, absolutely amazing!"

"Really? We thought that..." Remus broke off and looked away awkwardly.

"You thought that I would be rather traumatised, right?" Lily said gently. They nodded. Lily smiled at them, "I know, I thought I would be too. But really, it feels like nothing ever happened."

"Well, I think we had better get Madame Pomfrey and Dumbledore to come and check anyway."

"Actually, I would like to see James if I could, where is he?"

After having a glaring contest as they fought over who would tell Lily, Remus sighed and answered her, "We do not know. He disappeared a few days ago when he was not allowed to see you. We have not seen him since."

"Have you checked that map that you made?" Lily asked.

They looked at her in surprise. She grinned at them, "Did you really think that I would not notice? You lot always seem to know where everyone is. I also got quite used to seeing a flutter of paper whenever I walked into the room, I knew you were hiding something from me."

Sirius smiled at her, "It looks like it is time to induct you into all of our Marauder secrets then."

"Marauder? What is that?"

"That is what we call ourselves, the Marauders," Sirius said with a flourish and a bow.

Lily looked at him strangely, "Alright, I am more than a little confused. Why do you call yourselves that?"

Sirius looked injured, "Because we are amazing! I really thought you would have learnt that by now!"

Lily laughed, "I am terribly sorry Sirius, of course you are amazing."

He huffed, "Thank you. Now, you already know one secret."

"I do?"

"The Invisibility Cloak, remember?"

"Oh, I already knew about that."

"You did?"

"Yes, James used to use it to sneak over to me, ages ago."

"Oh," Sirius looked disappointed, "Well, do you know about our nicknames?"

"No, you have nicknames?"

Sirius smirked, "Yes, yes we do. Mine is Padfoot, Remus is Moony, Peter is Wormtail and James is Prongs."

Lily gave them all a look, "Is this something to do with you being Animagi?"

They all looked at her, shocked. She laughed at their expressions before explaining, "Peter turned into a rat in front of me, it was not too hard to work our that if one of you could do that, you all could. You do everything together, I doubt you could find four brothers that are closer than you lot. I would like to know what you become though."

Sirius promptly became a dog and jumped up to lick her on the face. She laughed and pushed him away gently, "Careful Sirius, you do not want to let James see you doing that!" Lily looked over at Remus who had turned into a wolf. "You make a very nice wolf Remus," she said as she gave him a scratch behind the ears. "So, what is James' Animagus?"

Remus became himself again to answer her, "He is a stag, that is why he is called Prongs."

Lily nodded approvingly, "Well, is that all your secrets then?"

"There is only the map left, but you already sort of knew about that," said Remus as he pulled the map out.

Lily gasped as the map unfolded, "That is amazing, it must have taken you ages to make! Does it show everyone in the palace?"

"Yes, and that is why we cannot find James. He is not on here, so he must be outside of the palace. He could be anywhere by now."

Lily smiled, "No, I think I might know where he is."

…

James wandered through the forest as a stag. He knew everyone would be worried about him, but he didn't care, he needed time to think.

_James watched as the red headed girl danced through the forest. He had been following her since she had left the village. She was so graceful, James could not keep his eyes off of her. When she bent down to pick a herb before dancing on again, James almost sighed with longing. He had never seen anyone as beautiful as her. _

_Before he could hide, she turned and looked at him with a glare. "I thought someone was following me. What do you want?"_

_James could not move, she was even more beautiful when she was angry. He stood there, transfixed, as she stormed towards him. _

"_Oh, it's you, the Prince," she spat. "Come to tell me what to do again?"_

_When he didn't answer her, she pulled out her wand, "Or are you just some sort of creepy stalker. I am warning you, try anything with me and I will hex you into the next kingdom."_

_James couldn't help the smile that grew over his face, "You are so beautiful when you are angry."_

_The girl stopped, stunned. "Excuse me?" she asked. _

"_Tell me your name."_

"_How about... no."_

"_Why not?"_

"_I do not give my name to strangers I meet in the forest, much less creepy strangers that are stalking me."_

"_I am not stalking you, I was out walking and saw you."_

"_And then you followed me, how is that not stalking?"_

"_Because I have no intentions of hurting you."_

"_Sure, like I believe that. Have you forgotten the cow pat or do I need to remind you?"_

_James laughed, "No, I remember it well."_

"_Good. Now that we have come to that conclusion, I will bid you good day and be on my way. I suggest you be on yours too." With that, she turned her back on him and began to walk off. _

"_Wait, please, just tell me your name, then I will leave you alone."_

"_No, I told you, I do not give my name to strangers. Go away."_

"_I am not a stranger, I met you the other day. And it is not fair, you know who I am."_

"_But I do not care who you are, so why does it matter to you."_

"_Because you are beautiful."_

"_And?"_

"_What?"_

"_I am beautiful, so what? Why does that make it so important for you to know my name?"_

_James was dumbfounded. What was the girl talking about?_

"_If I was ugly, would you still be following me?" When he didn't answer, she continued. "Exactly, you would not care if I was intelligent, or friendly, or funny. All you care about is looks. You are just some arrogant, spoilt, superficial Prince that thinks he can have whatever he wants. Now, go away, I am not going to tell you again."_

"_Excuse me, but I do care about those things. I find you intriguing and I want to know more about you."_

_The girl sighed, "Trust me, you do not. You will be bored in a month if I let you 'know more about me'. I know your type, you just like dizzy girls that fawn all over you, girls that you can use for a bit and then throw away. I am not going to be one of them."_

"_You have got me all wrong, that is not how I work at all. I respect all the girls that I have been with."  
><em>

"_Sure you do. Tell it to someone that cares, I have things to do."_

_James couldn't bear to see her walk away from him so he reached out to grab her wrist. She darted around and before he could even open his mouth she Stunned him. When he awoke, the sun was setting. He smiled and stretched. "What a woman," he thought. _

James smiled a deer smile at the memory, Lily had always had a temper. He had to agree with her though, he had been pretty creepy that day. It was a good thing that he had eventually toned the arrogance down and stopped with the over-the-top displays or he might still be trying to win her affections.

"James?"

He jumped and started to run before he recognised the voice. He stopped and turned back. He was so surprised that he turned back into a human.

"Lily? Is that you?"

She nodded and he walked towards her. He stopped a few meters from her, looking at her suspiciously. "I am sorry, but how can I know that it is you? This could be another trick."

"It is me James. This is the place where you stalked me through the forest and I Stunned you. I left you lying right over there."

He laughed, "Yes you did."

"Did you ever tell anyone about that?"

"No."

"And did Snape find out about it?"

"I am pretty sure he did not."

"Well then, is that enough proof for you?"

He bounded over to her and swept her up in his arms. He went to kiss her but stopped.

"What is wrong?"

He hesitated. "I just... are you alright with this? As everyone pointed out to me the other day, you were not alright before this war started. I do not want to make you feel like you have to do this, not if you are not comfortable."

"James, would I be here if that was true? I am fine, really, I feel the best I ever have."

James stepped back, "What?"

"I feel great, it is as if nothing ever happened. And there is nothing I want to do more than kiss you right now."

"Lily, as much as I want to do that too, I do not think I can."

"Why not?"

"Please, do not be offended, but you should not be 'fine'."

"I am James. If you were Snape, then I probably would be a little upset. But you are not him, I love you James."

"I love you too Lily. Lets go back to the palace, everyone is probably worried sick."

"Can I at least have a little kiss first?" pouted Lily.

He smiled, "I suppose so."

As he kissed her, everything went dark.


	36. Chapter 36

**Update! Sorry for the wait, I have been working on it all week, hopefully it is worth the wait! A big thanks to jg13145 who has added the story and me to their alert and favourites list, thankyou for the support! And as always, a huge thanks to Jannice Sace for the review, I will try and put more back story in for you in future chapters! Enjoy!**

...

Sirius, Remus and Peter were getting rather worried. Lily had skipped out of the room to go find James hours ago and neither of them had returned yet.

"Do you think we should go and look for them?" asked Remus.

"Relax, they are probably just getting all lovey dovey out in the woods or something," said Sirius offhandedly.

"Sirius, please, do not pretend you are not as concerned as the rest of us."

"I was just saying, it is a possibility."

"I doubt it, why would they want to do that out in a wood?"

"It could be some romantic gesture?" said Peter.

Remus looked at him strangely, "In a wood? What about sticks and insects and so on?"

"Just because you are a prude, Remus, does not mean that the rest of us are. Some girls quite like getting friendly out in the woods," Sirius said smugly.

"Really? _You_ convinced some girl to go and be 'friendly' out in a wood," said Remus disbelievingly.

"Are you implying that I could not get a girl to do whatever I asked?"

"Yes, yes I am."

"Well, you are wrong then my friend. Remember that Clarise girl? She came here hoping to get James to marry her, instead, she got me."

"_Clarise_? The Duke of Scamander's daughter?"

"She had a thing for nature and stuff, it was not hard."

"Again, sticks? Bugs? Wild animals?"

"Eh, not really my concern, I was not the one lying on the ground, if you get what I mean," Sirius said with much eyebrow wiggling.

"Ugh," Remus said as he threw a pillow at Sirius. "Anyway, this is not getting us any closer to finding James and Lily.

"If you are so worried, why not just go and ask Dumbledore? He is sure to have put some sneaky little spell on them that will tell us where he is, he is always doing that."

"No he does not."

"Yes he does! Look how many he put on Lily before!"

"That was not sneaky, she knew he had done it."

"It was too! They were hidden in her mind or something crazy like that. It was convenient but a little creepy."

Remus shook his head, "Fine, lets go talk to him and see if he knows what is going on."

As they got up to leave, Peter looked worried. "What is wrong Wormtail?" asked Sirius.

"Nothing, I just... did Dumbledore do that to all of us? Have sneaky spells on us?"

"How should I know? Probably not, or he would have caught me that time that I insulted that girl from France and almost started a war."

"Do you mean the Princess? Who has an incredibly protective father who also happens to be a King? You slept with her?" Remus spluttered.

"I did more than sleep, if you know what I..."

"Yes, yes, I know what you mean," interrupted Remus. He walked off muttering to himself.

Sirius turned to Peter, "See? If I did that without getting caught, I am sure you are fine. What are you worried about? Got your eye on a girl?"

"No, no nothing like that. I just did not want him to find out about me sneaking down to the kitchens."

"Why on earth would he care about you sneaking down to the kitchens? Relax, I am sure no one cares about what you get up to Peter." Sirius walked off after Remus and Peter glared after him before hurrying to catch up.

…

Dumbledore peered over his glasses as he listened to them. When they finished he sighed heavily. "This is not good. I am glad that the King is away fighting right now or he would be very angry right now"

"What?" said Sirius, "How is this our fault?"

"I did not say that it was. I put spells on Lily so that I would know when she woke up and also to know if she left her room. I had hoped to make sure this did not happen."

Sirius grinned smugly at Remus before turning back to Dumbledore. "So, is the Lily that we saw not the real one?"

"Oh no, she was real. But she appears to be under the control of someone else, someone who was clever enough to dismantle all my charms without me knowing."

"And what exactly does that mean?"

"It means, that James and Lily are most likely in a lot of trouble right about now.

…

James woke with a pounding headache. He groaned and rolled over on to something cold. Muttering about inconsiderate friends who pulled pranks that weren't funny, he opened his eyes to see what they had done to his bed. He looked around, confused, as he tried to make sense of where he was. The room was made of stone, it was cold and damp. James slowly came to the conclusion that he was in a dungeon. With that realisation, he remembered what had happened.

"Lily!" he shouted. "Lily!"

"Awake are we?"

A dark haired woman leered at him through the door. "You have such a good set of lungs, I do so love that in my captives."

"Bellatrix. Nice to see you here, I almost did not recognise you."

"I have grown somewhat since we last met. I was glad to here that you had grown too James, settling down with a lovely girl, about to get married. you are the lucky Prince," she drawled.

"What have you done to Lily?" James growled.

"Nothing much, though there are so many things that I cannot wait to try. Unfortunately, she is the Dark Lord's new pet, I will have to wait until he grows bored with her."

Bellatrix laughed as James lunged at the door. "I will see you later my dear Prince, hopefully we can have a little fun soon." She walked off leaving James to pound the door in frustration.

…

Hours later, James was napping when he heard the door opening. He scrambled to his feet as Lily walked into the room. She grinned at him before pointing her wand at him.

"Lily..." he whispered.

"Hello James. You are not looking so well, is something the matter?"

"What are you doing Lily? This is not you."

She scowled and flourished her wand and James found himself pressed against the wall. "You would not know the first thing about me James, I am a new woman now."

"No, you are Lily, my Lily. What have they done to you Lils?"

"_Crucio,_" she murmured.

When she lifted her wand and his screaming stopped, she came to stand in front of him. James raised his head to look at her. She watched him curiously, head tilted to one hand. James smiled gently, he had always loved that look. Lily always tilted her head when she was pondering an interesting problem.

"Do I amuse you? Or are you forgetting that I am the one holding the wand here?"

"You look so beautiful like that."

"When I am torturing you? I do not need you to tell me that, I have so many men telling me that already."

Lily cursed him again and he cried out in pain. "Now, let us get down to business."

"Here? I do not think you would be very comfortable here but if that is what you want..."

Lily smirked and placed her wand gently on his neck. "Oh James, you are a funny one. Believe me, I will have my pleasure soon enough, but as they say, business first. I would like to know where the King is."

"And how would I know that when I am tucked up down here?"

"You are his son, you of all people should know where he went."

"I am sorry to disappoint you, but I would not have the first clue where he is."

Lily stepped back and began to pace. "I am not an idiot James. The King apparently left the palace to go and fight on the front line of this war, but no one has seen him there. Where is he?"

"Why do you want to know?"

She glanced at him sideways, "I do not think I need to explain it to you, a fool such as yourself can work it out."

"And you should know that I like to have things spelled out for me, Lily. I do not like to have any confusion with such matters."

Lily sighed, "Very well. My master wishes to kill the King and take his kingdom. But to do that, he first needs to find him. And that is where you come in."

"That is an original plan."

"Yes. Now, I am growing impatient darling. Where is your father?"

"Honestly, I do not know. Information like that was on a strictly need to know basis."

"And why would you not be told? You are his son."

"Exactly. We had planned for such an event like this happening."

"Oh really? And what else did this plan consist of? A quaint escape attempt as well?"

"Well, no, all we really got to was the need to know basis stuff."

"How delightful."

"While we are chatting here, may I ask, who is your master? My old buddy Snape?"

She smiled thinly, "That is on a strictly need to know basis."

James smiled in reply, "Ah, I missed this friendly banter. It is nice to trade wits with you again."

Lily threw her head back and laughed. "Trading wits? Oh no, we are not doing that, you have quite a while to go before you can be classed as having wit. Maybe I should sharpen your mind a little. Or maybe I should just hurt you some more."

James grinned at her as she began to torture him once again.

…

"He is a stubborn thing," commented Bellatrix as she watched Lily work.

"Hmm. I had hoped that he would break when Lily went in there. It appears that you will get to have your go Bella," said Voldemort.

"Do you think he does know where the King is?"

"No, he looked to be telling the truth. A shame. Get whatever information out of him that you can but do not kill him, I would like the pleasure of that myself."

"Yes Master. Did you hear anything from your little rat?"

"No, he does not know either, it appears no one does. It does not matter, if I cannot find him I shall just take his throne anyway. It will not be very hard if he is not there to fight for it."

…

Peter shivered. An early autumn chill was in the air, but it was enhanced by the Dementors that now stood guard around the Dark Lord's lair.

"What do you have to report Wormtail? I hope it is good, I have only had bad news today."

"I am sorry my Lord. Everyone is celebrating their victory in the last battle against your forces."

"I said good news Wormtail. If necessary, I can demonstrate what happens to those who bring me bad news. I assure you, it is not pleasant."

Peter bowed hurriedly. "No my Lord, I am sorry, please forgive me, I did not mean to offend. With the celebrations, I managed to sneak into Moody's office. I heard him talking to someone."

"And what did you hear?" Voldemort said impatiently.

"I heard where the King is hiding."

"Ah, now that is good news! Where is the coward?"

"He had been working undercover, the latest success was due in part to him. He is in Godric's Hollow."

"Excellent. I shall head over there now."

"Master, wait." Peter cowered as Voldemort glared at him.

"I do hope this is good, I do not like to be ordered around," he said venomously.

"No Master, sorry Master, I did not mean it. The King is being hidden by the Fidelius Charm. Moody said that no one could find him."

"No matter, I will just have to draw him out then. Thank you Wormtail, you have been most helpful. Have they found out what happened to their dear Prince yet?"

"Yes, they are trying to find him now, but they have not made much progress. They know that it was Lily who captured him, but that is all."

"Good. Oh, I forgot to thank you for disabling those irritating spells of Dumbledore's. My whole plan could have failed if it was not for you."

Peter blushed and bowed. "Thank you Master. I live only to serve you."

"That you do. Now, go back to your post and be sure to keep your ears out for any news of the King's whereabouts. I want to be there the second he pokes his nose out of his little sanctuary."


	37. Chapter 37

**Wow, an update... it's been a long time. I want to get this story finished, so I will update more frequently. I've also touched up the previous chapters and fixed a few typos, any feedback is welcomed. Thanks to delz04 and jrenfrey for adding the story to their alert lists and to Jannice Sace for the review, unfortunately not much back story this time, I'll do some for the next part!**

...

Godric's Hollow was almost destroyed. The only buildings still standing were the ones protected by the Fidelius charm. Lord Voldemort walked down what had once been the main street, enjoying the crunch of gravel beneath his feet. He stopped to look at the three buildings in front of him. The defenders had retreated into them, but he could not follow. He smiled unpleasantly, it was time to lure the noble heroes out.

"As you have seen, you are no match for my army," he said, voice magically amplified. "I will give you this chance to surrender."

There was no reply.

"Very well, you have forced my hand." He beckoned to his followers and Prince James was brought forward by two of his Death Eaters. They dropped the broken man at their Lord's feet. Voldemort smiled as he gestured with his wand and levitated James up. The Prince looked at him blankly, he had given up caring weeks ago. "I will show you what happens to those who defy me." He raised his wand, "_Avada..._"

"Stop!" called a commanding voice. Voldemort smiled as he watched King Harold walk down the road towards him.

"As you wish," replied Voldemort. He waved his wand and James flew through the air, landing on the doorstep of one of the houses. The door opened and the Prince was dragged swiftly inside.

"You are here to surrender?" enquired Voldemort.

"No. I am here to fight," the King growled as he slashed his wand angrily, flames streaked down the street towards the Dark Lord.

Voldemort lazily waved his wand in reply and the flames vanished. "It will take more than that to hurt me, Your Majesty."

…

"James? Prongs? Wake up mate!" Sirius pleaded.

Remus put a hand on his shoulder. "We need to get him to one of the Healers, Sirius, come on."

Sirius shook him off angrily. Voldemort's forces had swarmed towards Godric's Hollow two months ago, it was clear that he had discovered where the King was. Since then, they had been fighting daily and Sirius had given up any hope of seeing his best friend again. He kept shaking James, silent tears streaming down his face.

Dumbledore gently removed Sirius' hands from James' shoulders and nodded at Remus, who levitated James and took him to see the Healers.

"No! I have to go with him!"

"Sirius, I need you to focus, I need your help," Dumbledore said urgently.

"James needs me."

"I need you more."

Sirius stopped struggling and looked at the old man. "What is it?" he said sullenly.

"While Lord Voldemort is distracted, I need you to change into your Animagus form and see if you can find Lily. I am sure she is out there, we need to get her back."

"What? She's the one who did this to James! It is her fault that this is all happening!"

"We don't know that for sure, but it is of the greatest importance that Lily escapes from Voldemort's influence."

"Why?" asked Sirius.

"I'll explain later, right now, you need to do this."

Sirius nodded his head sullenly and headed for the back door. He changed into his dog shape and slipped outside. No one was watching, everyone was fixated on the duel. Spells flew everywhere, Sirius could not tell who was winning. He padded quietly behind the line of Death Eaters that had stood a safe distance from their master and began to sniff the air. The smells were overwhelming, dust, soot, charred timber and flesh. He tried to ignore those scents and focused on the hint of Lily's personal smell. He followed it back up the street, out of what was left of the town and to the Dark Lord's camp. He found her sitting quietly in a small tent, staring into the distance. When he entered she turned to look at him with a smile.

"Sirius."

He transformed back into a man and gave her a glare. "Lily," he replied shortly. "Good to see you looking so well."

"The Dark Lord said that one of you would come for me."

"Oh really?"

"Yes. He told me to kill you." She stood up and flicked her wand. Sirius found himself bound tightly by the ropes that flew out of her wand.

"Well, get it done already."

She turned her head to the side. "You are eager to die?"

"My best mate is close to death, I would much rather meet him in the afterlife than listen to you," Sirius spat.

Lily looked puzzled. Sirius gave an exasperated sigh, "James? Prince James? You know, the man who gave you his heart only for you to destroy him? He is almost dead, thanks to you."

Lily's mouth was slightly open, the confused look was still on her face. "James?" she murmured.

"Yes, James. Do you not remember him?"

_There was a knock at her door. She went to answer it, puzzled as to who could be visiting her at this hour. She opened it to find a tall, dark haired man on her doorstep, soaked through from the heavy rain that was falling. He dropped on to one knee in front of her._

"_Lily Evans, would you do me the honour of wedding me?"_

"That is not right," she muttered to herself.

"Sorry?" asked Sirius. She ignored him, one hand clutched to her head.

"_Yes," she said breathlessly. _

_Snape jumped to his feet and smothered her in a hug._

She focussed on the memory, it had seemed so real, but as she turned the thought around in her face, Snape's face slowly transformed into another man's.

"James."

"Yes, James. Did we not already go through this?"

"It was James, not Snape."

"Was it? Would you care to explain what is going on?"

"I'm... not sure. My head hurts."

"Would you be so kind to let me go then?" he asked.

She ignored him and sat back down, holding her head with both hands. There was a flash of red and she suddenly slumped against the table. Sirius looked around in surprise and saw Remus smirking back at him.

"I thought you might need a hand," he said, waving his wand.

Sirius grinned in reply as the ropes fell off him. "Let us get her back then, before any one notices what is going on." Remus nodded and levitated the Stunned girl. They quickly left the tent and crept around the fight that was still going on. They got back to the safe house without anyone noticing, the Death Eaters were to fixated on the duel. Once they were in, Remus took Lily into one of the spare rooms. Sirius followed and watched as one of the people there Apparated away with her.

"What is going on?" he asked Remus.

"We are evacuating, everyone is leaving, we have to go."

"What about the King?"

"He knows what he is doing," Dumbledore said as he entered the room. "You both need to leave, now."

"No! We have to go help him!" Sirius shouted as he ran for the front door. Remus tackled him as he opened the door. Sirius struggled to get the smaller man off of him, but stopped when he heard a voice cry out. He looked out onto the street. The King was on his knees, his wand gone. Voldemort stood over him and raised his wand.

Sirius watched in horror as there was a flash of green light and the King slumped to the ground. Sirius saw his eyes staring blankly at him as Remus dragged him back into the house and shut the door. He didn't struggle as the other man Apparated them both away.


	38. Chapter 38

**Update time! A bit longer this time to make up for the last one, I'll try to update soon. Thanks to navi04vet for the story favourite!**

...

"That makes it twice now that they have defied him," said Moody.

"Yes, I am aware of that Alastor," Dumbledore replied calmly.

"Just answer me this Albus, are you trying to make this prophecy come true? Are you trying to create a child that will destroy the Dark Lord?"

Dumbledore was silent for a time, he stood gazing out the window in apparent deep thought. "It might be our only chance, Voldemort has become very powerful," he said at last.

"We can win this war Dumbledore, without putting an innocent child into the fray. I do not know how you are even going to get a child out of those two, I highly doubt that they will still want to get married now."

"There is another couple, Alice and Frank. They have also defied him twice."

"But he does not care about them, he is focused on Lily and James. You cannot send them out again, he will kill them next time to ensure the prophecy does not get fulfilled."

Dumbledore only bowed his head in response. They were interrupted by a messenger entering the room. "Excuse me my Lords, but Madame Pomfrey sent for you. She says that the Prince is awake."

…

James opened his eyes, they were bleary from his sleep. He clumsily tried to rub them, wincing at the pain that shot up his arm. Sirius was slouched in a chair beside his bed, mouth open as he slept. Remus smiled at James and nudged Sirius, who awoke with a start. He looked at James and smiled, "James! You are awake!"

"Yes, and you still state the obvious!"

"I do not! Name one time where I stated the obvious?"

"Just then, when you said I was awake."

"That does not count, name another time."

"It is good to see that you two can still argue," interrupted Remus. "More importantly, how are you James?"

The smile that had crept onto his face disappeared. He shook his head, "I do not know."

Sirius awkwardly patted his hand and was saved from having to say anything by the arrival of Madame Pomfrey. She fussed over James, checking him thoroughly, until Dumbledore and Moody also arrived.

"Hello there James, how are you feeling?" Dumbledore asked, his eyes piercing through James.

"I... I am not sure. Nothing hurts too much now, which is good."

"Can you tell us what happened? You do not need to go into details if it makes you uncomfortable."

James took a deep breath. "It was Lily. She found me in the forest and then, next thing I knew she was torturing me for information. She has joined their side now," he said sadly.

"That is not entirely true," said Dumbledore. "Voldemort seems to have learned some new tricks, he had taken control of Lily's mind. We are working to undo what he has done now."

James was shocked, "Lily is here?"

"Yes, Sirius and Remus managed to rescue her during the battle at Godric's Hollow."

"What are you talking about?" asked James.

Dumbledore suddenly appeared to look much older. James had never really noticed how old he actually was until now. "We made a stand at Godric's Hollow. Your father spent some time securing the town before the Death Eaters discovered where he was. A few days ago, the battle ended and we were forced to retreat."

James looked back and forth between the faces in front of him. There was something that none of them wanted to tell him. "What? What is it?" he asked.

"Your father, King Harold, was killed duelling Lord Voldemort," Moody said bluntly.

James stared at him in shock. "No, that cannot be," he mumbled. After a few moments, he looked down at the bedspread to hide the tears forming in his eyes.

"I am sorry, but it is true. Your mother has taken to her rooms in mourning and the kingdom is waiting for its new King."

Madame Pomfrey took the chance to interrupt. "I think that is enough now, the poor boy needs some more sleep," she said briskly, offering James a cup. He took it gladly and drank it quickly. He let the sleep wash over him.

…

Lily rolled over on the small bed. They had come to tell her that James was awake and she had ignored them. She did not want to think about him, there was too much guilt. She had been here a few days now, judging by the frequency of the meals that they had brought her. The latest plate lay untouched by the door, Lily had not been able to find the strength to move off the bed.

"_Come on Lily!" called Snape, "Your sister will follow us again if you do not hurry!"_

_Lily ran after him, trying to keep up with the taller boy. Snape had been growing taller those last few months, whereas she had stayed short. Her mother had assured her that she would grow too, Lily hadn't believed her. _

"_I found this place the other day, we can practice in here without being bothered," he said, a proud grin on his face. He ushered her through a small hole between two large rocks, on the other side was a large cave. Lily looked back at him as he crawled in after her, "But Sev, we do not need anywhere special to practice, McGonagall said we could use the schoolroom whenever we wanted to."_

_He pouted, "But everyone else is there! This is our place, our special place, just for us."_

_She grinned, "Fine then, I bet I can still beat you at duelling!" _

"_Not a chance."_

"Where had it all gone wrong?" she wondered to herself. "Why did I not realise what Snape was?" She knew she was being unfair to herself, the signs had been there.

"_Sev! What are you doing, stop that right now!" she screamed at him as she ran over to where he stood over her sister._

"_She insulted you Lily, I was just teaching her a lesson!" he protested._

"_With magic? You know we cannot do that, it is forbidden!"_

_He had no answer for her, she pushed him out of the way and knelt by Petunia. "Tuney? Are you okay?"_

_Petunia pushed herself up and glared at Lily, "Get away from me."_

"_But Tuney..."_

"_Do not call me that! I hate you, and that boy and all of your kind! Stay away from me."_

_Lily watched, tears running down her face as her sister stood up and ran away._

But it had not just been her sister that she had caught Snape picking on, Lily had lost count of the number of times she had scolded him for hexing the other village children. He never tried it with the ones who could fight back with magic, only the Muggles, as he had called them scornfully. He was forever trying to convince her to leave her unmagical family behind and to run away with him, to go join the ones in the South who were 'taking back the power that was their right' he had said. She had always laughed it off, she knew he hated his father and his lack of magic and thought that he just wanted to get away from him. Until that night anyway.

_She had been out walking, it was a beautiful autumn evening, the air just beginning to have a crisp edge to it, the leaves changing, the promise of winter coming. Then she heard the shrieks. She began to run, the noise was coming from the east part of the village, where her house was. As she approached, she could smell wood smoke in the air, Lily knew that it was not cold enough to have a fire yet. The sun dipped between the trees, making the glow from the burning buildings more obvious. She ran to help, but it was too late. Her house, along with three others were lost to the flames. There was a crowd of people in the street, some sobbed, others stood and stared in shock. Their were more people, lying in the street. Lily began to feel uneasy._

_Lily moved into the crowd, desperately searching for her parents. She finally found Petunia, her boyfriend Vernon, the only thing keeping her standing. Soot streaked her face, mixing with the tears that streamed from her eyes. When she saw Lily, her face twisted into a harsh expression. "What are you doing here? Are you here to gloat? Are you happy now?"_

"_What are you talking about Tuney? What happened?"_

_Her sister laughed nastily, "Oh, of course, pretend you do not know."_

_When Lily just stared at her, Petunia pushed Vernon away from her and advanced on her smaller sister. "This is your fault. You and those other wizards," she spat. _

_The other people in the crowd were turning to watch now, Lily searched for a friendly face but found none._

"_I did not do this!" Lily protested. _

"_I saw them," Petunia said. "Those Death Eaters. They came with their wands, laughing as they used their magic to kill my parents! They said that my parents had lied, they were not worthy of having a witch for a daughter, it must be a mistake. Then they killed them and anyone else they could find. If it was not for you, this would not have happened. Now go away, once and for all and take your magic with you."_

"_Tuney..."_

"_I told you not to call me that!" she screamed. "I am giving you this chance to leave now, or would you rather we burnt you at the stake for what you have done?"_

_Lily felt like she had been Stunned, this could not be happening. She backed away, pushing through the people that were now screaming at her as well. Someone made a grab for her, she dodged them and ran for her life. _

_She ran to their secret place, she needed to warn Severus, she knew that if he was not there already, he would be soon. Luck was with her, he was waiting in their cave. He smiled and bounded over to her when he saw her_

"_Lily! At last! This is our chance, we can leave this place and make our own way down in the South."_

_She stared at him blankly, why was he so happy?_

"_Lil? Come on, there's nothing keeping you here now."_

"_Wha... what are you talking about?"_

"_The Dark Lord has taken care of everything Lily! He said there would be a spot for us at his side! We can be together, just the two of us."_

_She backed away from him, "What are you talking about Sev?"_

"_This is what we wanted, the chance to have our own life. We can go and learn magic from him, none of this wishy washy stuff, real magic!" His eyes had a strange light to them, Lily was beginning to feel scared. "What is wrong Lily? Why are you not happy about this?"_

"_My parents just died. My sister and all the other villages hate me, they said this was my fault."_

"_You did not do anything Lily, you know that."_

"_Petunia said it was the Death Eaters. I thought they were just a rumour, but Tuney would not make that up."_

_He took her hand and gave her the kind of smile you give to a stupid child. "She was right Lily, the Dark Lord sent his Death Eaters to free us from this town."_

_She tore her hand away from him, her anger building. "What are you saying Sev? Why are you so happy? My parents just died!"_

"_Yes, so did mine," he smiled. _

_She looked at him in horror. "What have you done?" she whispered._

_Anger flashed across his face, "I did what needed to be done. My father will never bother me again and you no longer have your family keeping you here. The Dark Lord says that we both have potential, I have made it possible for us to have a life, a future, together."_

"_I loved my family! And now they are gone!" she shouted._

"_It does not matter sweetheart, we have each other."_

"_What are you talking about? I am _not_ your sweetheart!"_

_Snape looked at her, dumbfounded. "What am I talking about? What are _you_ talking about? I love you Lily, and I know you love me!"_

_She laughed at the ridiculousness of his suggestion, "What gave you that idea? I have always loved you, but as a brother, never anything more. And when did you suddenly fall in love with _me_?"_

"_I have always loved you Lily! From the first time I saw you!"_

_It was Lily's turn to be dumbfounded. "I'm sorry, I... I do not know what to say."_

_He grabbed her hand again, eyes pleading. "Say you will run away with me, say you love me."_

"_I cannot do that Sev," she said as she struggled to free herself from his grip._

"_Yes you can!" he roared._

_She pointed her wand at him. "Let go of me, now," she demanded. He obeyed and she slowly walked backwards, keeping the wand pointed at his chest. _

"_Lily, please."_

"_No Snape." He flinched at the words but she did not care. "My family are dead because of you, I have lost everything tonight, including my best friend." She Stunned him before he could reply, she did not want to listen to his poison any more. _

Lily drew in a shuddering breath, she had tried so hard not to remember that night. She had left the village, travelling as far away as she could, never staying long in one place. Many of the villages she visited had heard the whisperings from the South, any one with magic was looked on with suspicion. Eventually, she had found a larger town close to the Royal Castle. Magic was welcomed here and she had soon found a job and a new life. Lily had never expected to end up engaged to the Prince, she had certainly never expected to end up here, in this small room, a traitor to the country and to James. Her stomach turned, all this self loathing was not doing her any good. She fought to sit up so that she could grab the bucket beside her bed before she heaved into it. The contents of her stomach vanished as it hit the bucket's bottom, magic certainly had its uses even if she wished that she had never had it.


End file.
